Saturday, August 1, 2009

Business is about relationships...

How to Win Friends and Influence People (With easy click Table of Contents)

If there is one thing you take away from this blog about business it is that business is about relationships. The ability to make a widget, (widget is the universal example for a non-descript product) is universal. If two people have straw and brooksticks, they can both make brooms. Now all else being equal, quality, style, color, etc., the single differentiating factor of success for one and not the other will be the ability of one to build relationships.

Value is built when the one building the brooms can "sell" them to potential customers. No matter how good your broom is you can't make any money if no one knows about your product. You have to be able to move the product for the firm to actually have value.

I once spoke with a very successful commercial building developer. His firm was receiving hundreds of millions of dollars from investors all over the U.S. Why you ask? Because his firm had a great track record of success. Knowing this person and watching them work I quickly saw the reason for their success. They were able to build relationships that benefited everyone involved. His firm had built a building and it cost about $5 million to construct. But in short order they sold it for almost twice the amount. The increase in price was legitimate and justified based on one key item. The value of the leases for the space in the building. The reason they were able to get those lucrative leases was partly location, location location, but a tremendous part of the success was they were able to capitalize on their relationships.

Now, are relationships the only thing you need to be successful in business, the answer is no, it should be a big part of your efforts when building a business though. I can go on with a number of examples about how relationships have benefited me in business dealings when no pure business acumen would have saved the day, but trust me on this one build great, sincere, relationships and you will be rewarded. I will talk about how to build great relationships in the next post, but I will recommend one the greatest books ever written on the topic "How to win friends and influence people" By Dale Carnegie. There is a link at the top and a link below to hop over to Amazon and buy it right now. Don't hesitate, just buy the book now and read it. It will be money well spent. Actually read it at least three times. Until the next post, Make the Day Memorable!

How to Win Friends and Influence People (With easy click Table of Contents)

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