Networking is one of the most powerful methods of promoting your business that is available for free to you. There`s no need to pay high fees or purchase a great product in order to network, all you really need is yourself and a way to contact people, be it face to face, over the phone or via internet.

There are so many ways to network that it really doesn`t matter what style of communication you are comfortable with, you`re bound to find something that will work for you.

Networking is chock full of benefits. In addition to spreading the word about your business, you`ll find that you could make some very useful contacts. You never know who you could be talking to . . . that man in front of you in the post office line could be a graphic artist, or your newfound friend on Linked In might be in contact with a possible supplier for your business. It pays to network with everyone.

You might be surprised at just how great networking can be. You`ll find that there are a lot of different methods of networking, so pick one, online or off and start networking!

I just wanted to drop a line to remind you of two upcoming seminars for small businesses. One is free and the other costs just $50, but you will get pounds and pounds of value from both seminars. I promise!

The first seminar - the free one - will take place on September 15, 2008 at Latuff’s Pizza in Menneapolis, Minnesota. This is our monthly Biz Bloggers Meet-Up Group. It’s a free event but we will collect $4 from everyone for the pizza. The location for Latuff’s is 11333 Hwy 55 in Minneapolis. We’ll be sharing tips on how to make the most out of your business blog and networking. For more information and to RSVP go to http://blog.meetup.com/409/. We meet at 5:30 p.m.

The $50 seminar will take place the next day - September 16, 2008 - at Byerlys Community Center Ridgedale. We meet at 6 p.m. In this seminar I’ll talk about search engine optimization and how to use a blog to attract new business by targeting it toward search engines. In other words, can you really achieve high rankings with a blog? The community center is located at 13081 Ridgedale Drive in Minnetonka. For more information, go to SocialWebTraining. See you there!

You run a small business and it’s thriving. Your offline division is cranking out the steam and your online business is picking it up as well. But you have little time for your family. What do you do?

Well, first, you have to keep some balance in your life. And I mean real balance. You’re not just managing a business. You’re managing a life. So let’s break it down.

As far as time management goes, there are two times that you need to manage: Now and Future. That’s not what you though I was going to say, is it? But it’s true. You have commitments today, right now, but you also have deadlines that may be a week away, two weeks away, or a month away. And you know that you’ll get more business that will cut into the time that you have to manage those. So you need to organize your time management tasks into Now and Future.

In areas of life and business, you have your family, you have your offline business, your online business, your community, friends, your church, other civic activities, and you may even have political commitments. Whatever the case, you need to break it down and organize your channels. All of them have Now and Future aspects, don’t they?

Consider your offline business and online business separate entities because they do have different needs and concerns. They require different approaches.

When you organize your time, figure out what needs to get done right now. Assign a priority to each task. Immediate, Important, Somewhat Important, and If I Can Get To It works. You may create your own categories, but I highly recommend this.

What you do is you create a list. In your list, code your tasks with your priority rating for that task. Also, try to imagine how long that task will take you - 5 mins., 2 hours, etc. Next, note which box, or channel, it fits into. Is it related to your offline business, online business, charity work, family? Make sure you note this.

You can create your list of tasks the first thing in the morning, but I’d recommend doing it the night before, either just before you go to bed or just before you leave the office. It should be the last thing you do for the day. That way, when you start the next day, the first thing you do is consult your list and see what needs to get done. Try to finish one important task in each channel category of your life each day. In other words, do the most important and immediate tasks first for each category, but if your family life only has “maintenance” items for that day (ie no birthdays, weddings, promises to keep, etc.) then at least do that. Do one thing in each channel every day.

It’s important to do one thing from each life channel every day because if you make that phone call to your sister then it’s a morale booster for you and for her. You both benefit and you will be more productive in the long run.

By prioritizing each task in your life this way and ensuring that you spend a little time each day in every channel where you have commitments, you will be more fulfilled, more productive, and much happier.

Four Hour Work Week posted a great blog post on how to make the best use of RSS and social bookmarking services. Many small business people still don’t use RSS and I think they should. Just look at these points from an RSS pro:

Tips for Using RSS Effectively:

1) Don’t Use Categories
Organizing all your feeds by genre is tempting but will burn you out. It is better to list them all out in a single view and use the “j” and “k” shortcuts [hitting the “j” key move you down, hitting the “k” moves you up] on Google Reader to navigate your feeds. This inserts variety into your daily read and lets valuable material stand out, as opposed to reading 30 posts in a row from the same author.

2) Don’t check it on the weekends
By batching it up and adding a sense of urgency to the process, you’re much less likely to waste time on crap. Be ruthless. If it’s good and you miss it, it will come back to you, I promise.

3) Clean House
You’re in charge. Your time is valuable. You’re too good to put up with someone who phones it in. If your friend told boring or pointless stories, would you call them up in the middle of the day and give them your uninterrupted attention? If an author isn’t delivering consistently, cut them out. If they ever improve enough to be worth reading again, you’ll probably hear about it.

4) If it Piles Up, Throw it Away
If you fall too far behind, don’t dedicate 4 hours to catching up on 1,256 posts. Just click “Mark All As Read” and move on. If you’re utilizing Delicious and StumbleUpon correctly, both later in this article, all the important stuff will come back to you.

That’s all great advice and I really like those last two points. Don’t waste time reading blog posts and information from people who don’t provide you with the best stuff. Life is to short to waste on useless content. Instead, subscribe to the best content and read what is relevant to your business.

For the uninitiated, RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. You subscribe to an RSS feed by clicking on the RSS button on a blog and the URL of that feed will be automatically added to your news reader. I recommend Bloglines or Google Reader. Both are Web-based and free.

When you subscribe to an RSS feed, you get to choose when you read the information. I recommend setting aside a specific time of day for reading all of your content. Then, information that you want to keep and refer to later should be bookmarked so that you can get back to it when you want. Google Reader has a bookmark feature that lets you place a gold star next to information you want to go back to later. You can also thumbs up the information StumbleUpon or bookmark it on del.icio.us. Whichever way you decide to do it, it makes it easy to save information you want to keep without having to use up your own hard drive space.

One essential element of my business that I find to be more important every day is networking. Whether you do your networking online or through the traditional route of meeting people in the real world, or both, I highly recommend that you add this low-cost marketing tactic to your arsenal of daily or weekly activity. There are many ways to go about networking and I recommend that you incorporate both online and off line networking strategies. One of the most effective networking opportunities you’ll ever find, though, is your local business networking group.

If you search the classifieds of your local paper - usually the shopper is a good place for these - you’ll find ads for local small business networking groups. Many groups meet for breakfast or lunch, and some may even meet in the evening one night a week. They are usually organized by week or month. The most effective networking groups meet weekly.

By joining one of these networking groups you’ll not only have access to all the members of the group, but to their network of contacts as well. If you have 10 members of your group and all of them have 100 potential networks or contacts then that’s 1,000 people that you have direct access to through your combined circles of influence. Many of those people will be merely acquaintances, but acquaintances have a way of spawning into full-fledged friendships if you give them time.

Networking through a local meeting group like this can be very rewarding. The best networking groups only allow one person of any particular type of business in the network, which means that you have no competition within that network. For instance, if you are a doctor then there won’t be any other doctors in the group - unless they allow for specific specialties. If you are a barber then there won’t be any other barbers.

Networking groups also usually allow members to give presentations from time to time and share contacts on a regular basis. Many even have recruiting activities once a month or once per quarter. Whatever your business and no matter your location, having a networking group to meet with on a regular basis can be very rewarding.

We all know that networking is important for small businesses, but sometimes, you might find that there just isn´t anyone to network with in your immediate area. Maybe you don´t live in town, or maybe your town is so small that you are one of just a couple business owners. This is when it can be a good idea to network outside your area. It really does help and with today´s technology, it is completely possible.

Networking outside your area can be done in one of a few ways:

Travel: When you head to a trade show or conference, you will find that your circle of networking contacts suddenly expands. Sometimes, it can be a good idea to find a networking group outside your area that meets up once or twice a month and bite the bullet, travel to meet with them.

Phone: Using a phone can be a great way to network with those who you already have some contact with. Whether you met them at a conference or networking group, keeping in touch via phone is a great way to ensure that those connections stay fresh.

Internet: There are a huge variety of possibilities online for networking. Even if you aren´t terribly comfortable with this, you might want to use email to keep in touch with networking contacts.

Networking for small business is a huge part of finding new clients. If you have been delaying your networking . . . it´s high time you got started! There are so many options for it, that there´s really no excuse.

How often have you been at a church potluck or a family dinner and someone asks you what you do? Do you gloss over your business since you are in a social setting? It can be tempting to assume that your second cousin isn´t really interested in what you do, but the truth is, social situations like these are ideal for networking!

You never know when you sit down next to someone at a meeting or event what might come of it. Obviously, you don´t want to sound like a walking TV ad, but you should definitely have an “elevator” speech ready. That´s just a quick 30 second description of what you do, something you could spit out on a short elevator ride. Then, if someone seems interested and keeps asking questions, make sure you follow up.

There are networking connections in the strangest places. Remember the whole 6 degrees of separation rule? The idea is that you are no more than 6 people away from anyone else in the world. . . . including potential clients and business partners. You don´t know if that elderly man´s son is in the market for what you offer, but that shouldn´t stop you from talking to him and handing over a business card.

Networking is a habit that you should try to build. Anywhere you go, make sure you talk about your business, even if just to give your elevator speech. You will be surprised to find that you make great networking contacts all over the place, from the pharmacy to the dentist and the grocery store line. People are everywhere . . . all you need to do is talk to them!

Effective networking is quite the science. Anyone can network, but making it work for your business can be a bit trickier. But I´ve compiled a few tips to help you out.

Effective Networking Techniques

Stay in contact. Just because you can´t use a networking contact immediately doesn´t mean you should drop them. Stay in contact on friendly terms and you´ll be far more likely to get help when you need it, rather than going to them only when you are desperate.

Learn to listen. People love to talk about themselves and you are probably no exception, but taking the time to shut up and listen will help you learn more about your networking contacts as well as build their confidence. People tend to like someone who listens well.

Step out of your comfort zone. You´ll be tempted to stick with people you know any time you go to a conference or a party, but the real networking happens when you step out and talk to people you don´t know.

Follow up. Even if you aren´t sure if someone is a good networking contact, follow up on them and make sure to cultivate the relationship. You never know when people might come in handy!

Do favors. Networking is a two way street. People really appreciate you giving them a hand and will often reciprocate. While there are a few people out there who are just time suckers, you will probably find that most are willing to help you out after you´ve done something for them.

All of these networking techniques are very effective if you use them. Making sure that you are always prepared to talk to people about your business will really help you gain friends and potentially useful contacts, so practice a short speech describing your business and what you do, no more than 30 seconds (commonly known as the elevator speech) and then use it!

My friend, Beth Woodward, is hosting a great networking event for women in business. If you are a female entrepreneur who lives near Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, you might want to consider checking out Adventures in Brainstorming.

I went to Beth’s LAST event in January, and I can tell you it was extremely powerful. I walked away with many great ideas, and several that I’ve implemented have already paid me back for my investment in the program several times over, with more results to come. I highly recommend Beth’s Adventures in Brainstorming for anyone looking for breakthrough ways to grow your business!

This is definitely a good idea for anyone who feels their business is growing stagnant, but really, every business benefits from new ideas and who better to help you brainstorm than other business women?

For online or offline businesses, Adventures in Brainstorming is a great networking opportunity, as well as a chance to pick up some great new ideas for your business. You´ll find that getting together with other women who run their own businesses is a great way to build a network that can serve you well in the future.

Does networking make your palms sweat? Do you find yourself battling butterflies in your stomach when you enter a room full of people? There are a lot of people who simply find business networking to be a very stressful process, while others are naturally more social and easily meet new people and talk to anyone they cross paths with. Even if you´re not a natural born networker, there are a few methods to make your networking more effective.

Effective Networking Tips

Smile when you walk into the room. You´ll be amazed at how much more approachable you´ll seem.

Join forces. Find someone you know and network with others as a team. This can eliminate much of the fear until you feel more comfortable on your own.

Listen more than you talk. There´s an old adage that goes, “God gave you two ears and one mouth, so you should listen twice as much as you talk.” Whether you believe in a higher power or not, the fact remains that listening gets you a lot further than talking!

Try to ignore rude people. These are usually the minority, since most people are at networking events in order to meet others, but there is always at least one who will stick up their nose at you . . . just walk away and find someone nice.

Watch body language. If you see a group of people standing in a circle, closing others out, don´t attempt to join the group. Instead, look for small groups of two or three people that have one side open . . . they are more likely to accept a new face.

Set a goal. If you are very nervous, just set yourself a goal to meet 3 new people. After that you can relax and enjoy the event. Raise or lower the number depending on your stress level, but meet that goal before you start hanging out at the drinks table.

Not everyone is cut out for networking naturally, but as it is a part of running a business, you´ll be faced with it at some point. The best thing to do is follow the tips above and remember that the more you do this, the better you´ll get at it.