As a business owner, your livelihood depends on building quality relationships. You can be amazing at what you do, but if you’re lacking in communication and relationship skills your business will suffer. From networking to customer service, relationship building is key to your success.
Why Relationship Building is Important
“At the end of the day people won’t remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.”
~Maya Angelou
This quote couldn’t be more spot on for business owners. When a customer walks in your door, you shake hands with a fellow business owner at a networking event, or talk with an employee, you are building a relationship. Every interaction you have will help you grow personally, professionally and even financially.
Instead of writing a synopsis on a great article, I want you to head over to Kabbage and read “Business Relationships: The Key to Success for Small Business Owners”, then come back.
Here’s my top 10 takeaways from this article
- Small business owners are in a unique position to connect with the senior leadership of local companies – be sure to make the effort to foster those connections.
- Learn how to negotiate, take risks and communicate openly & honestly.
- Relationships take time. Put in the work, but remember trust is built slowly.
- Be creative in your problem solving and know when to compromise.
- Meet with people in-person – facetime is key!
- Less is more – invest in the relationships that are worth it and understand relationship range in their degrees of “closeness”.
- Respond quickly, helpfully and personally to professionals in your network, customers, employees and vendors.
- Be consistent.
- Know when to cut ties with relationships that aren’t working.
- Be clear on your goals and expectations.
Make the Investment
Building relationships takes time and effort, but the investment is worth it. Relationships are at the heart of everything you do. Since relationships are so vital to the success of your business, it makes sense to constantly be honing your people skills.
If you need support with improving your relationship building, our Business Advisors are here to help!
