Creating Opportunities

Last week I had the opportunity to speak to about 450 people at a Chamber of Commerce event in Surrey, British Columbia. I was honored to have in the audience, the Premier (equivalent to a State Govenor) Gordon Campbell. It was a great time to meet business owners - network with them and learn about what is happening in the local community. I also had a chance to come up with some ideas for "joint ventures" or "fusion marketing" partnerships.

Here's one idea: There were a wide range of interesting people sitting at my table. I realized that one of the group had a data base (a LARGE data base) of small business owners that I might be able to access. The next day I prepared a proposal offering to create a training program for those people in the data base. The program consists of a half day "live" training, then a CD to takehome, then a quarterly "web based" training session, plus on-going web based training program. I forwarded my proposal to the person with the large data base. Even if he doesn't accept my proposal I will have still made a valuable contact.

I urge you to start thinking about who you want to connect with. Can you create a proposal that is a win-win idea for both of you? Why not suggest it? You've got nothing to lose - everything to gain!