The seeds of your six-degree network can grow in the most
unlikely places. You might sit next to someone on an airplane, or
be chatting with someone as you wait for an elevator, when business
kismet strikes--so be sure to bring your game face with you
wherever you go. "Every interaction with anybody counts
because it reflects on your brand," says Alaina G. Levine,
president of Quantum Success Solutions, a Tucson, Arizona, company
that provides expertise on topics such as PR, personal branding and
marketing.
Kaz Kihara always had his business idea in the back of his head.
While working for a CPA firm in the late 1990s, he was attending
night school and started chatting with one of his classmates. The
two struck up a friendly rapport, and Kihara learned his classmate
was the chief information officer for an $80-million company in the
medical services industry. In 1999, when Kihara decided to start
Premier Data Technology Inc., a Torrance, California, provider of
IT services to small and midsize companies, this high-level
executive hooked him up with a former colleague--who became one of
Kihara's first and largest clients.
Keeping his six-degree network of contacts in mind at all times,
Kihara regularly calls his contacts socially--not always with a
specific business goal in mind, but to keep those lines of
communication open. "While I'm driving in my car, I call
my clients, friends, ex-employees, just to see how everything's
going," says Kihara, 35.
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And just like the experts suggest, he approaches contacts with
ways of helping their businesses. Says Kihara, "I try not to
do it too aggressively--I usually try to know the person or help
that person in their business or personally. How can I help them so
that they might want to help me out?"
There's one definite no-no of the six-degree system:
Don't be too pushy or aggressive when pursuing your leads. And
don't rush a connection too quickly, says Steve Harper, author
of The Ripple Effect: Maximizing the Power of Relationships for
Your Life and Business. "If person A can get you
aligned with person B, but you don't have enough rapport built
up with person A, you have a tendency to really burn a
bridge," he says. "You [can] make people feel used and
seedy in the process [by] leapfrogging them. It's really
important to let everybody know that they're individually
important in the process--and give the proper credit to person A
for opening that door of opportunity." You can do that by
following up with a thank you, he notes.
Ever appreciative of his business relationships, Kihara's
company grew to a second location in Las Vegas in May thanks to
six-degree networking. He is currently establishing and building
relationships in Asia with hopes of bringing his services to the
Japanese market, which will likely push sales past the 2005
projections of more than $2.4 million.
Proactive Network
Consider the biblical adage "seek, and ye shall find"
when it comes to six-degree networking. As Ferrazzi notes, you have
to be proactive when employing this approach during startup. First,
you must decide exactly what type of startup help you need: Are you
looking for someone to help finance your business? A mentor to
teach you about your industry? A source of great employees?
"Once you identify what you want to achieve, you can
specifically target the individuals you need to associate with to
achieve [your] goals," says Ferrazzi. "Some are going to
be prospective clients, community leaders, influencers,
etc."
That kind of preparation is precisely what helped Cindy Page
build her Blockhead Bath line of bath and body products. When
she launched her company in 2002, she needed help determining her
company name in addition to general information about the bath and
body industry. A former assistant buyer for Filene's, Page knew
a vendor who referred her to a friend who worked in marketing for a
large bath and body manufacturer--and she was able to glean a lot
of industry knowledge from that contact. "When I talked to
that person, I really made sure I had a goal in mind and the kinds
of questions I wanted to ask [all prepared]," says Page, 35.
"I made sure I did my homework."
Do your homework, and don't be afraid to ask politely for
what you need. But, Ferrazzi cautions: "You've got to make
sure the intimacy you have with them is commensurate with the
request." There's a fine line between being proactive and
being aggressive, but experts agree that many people are willing to
help if you approach them in a positive, "what can I do for
you" kind of way.
It's really just being brave enough to open your mouth about
your business. Says Page, "I tapped into every friend, every
trusted colleague, every business associate." A friend of a
former co-worker, for instance, was organizing a Ronald McDonald
House fund-raising event; thanks to that connection, the organizer
tapped Blockhead Bath to donate to the silent auction-a social coup
and a brand boost. Page was also invited to participate in a sales
event at an arts fair in Chicago when a friend of hers, who went to
college with the person who ran the fair, put in a good word. The
real-life implication of such relationships is clear: Page has seen
her company's 2005 sales approach $500,000, and her company
currently sells its products online at www.blockheadbath.com and at the Amazon.com Beauty store. Says
Page, "People like to do business with people they know, and
they like to help people they know-or kind of know."
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