Opportunity Knocks

As business owners we must be aware of the opportunities which we discover each and every day. These opportunities may be the result of careful and extensive planning on our parts, or they may be because of pure unplanned chance. It does not matter why we find these opportunities; we must be alert to taking advantage of all openings that may lead to our bettering our business bottom line.

Business people are proud of researching ways of finding prospects and planning what we do when we locate these prospects in order to turn prospects into potential customers. We study, plan, study some more, and plan some more. Then we try to put our plans into action, adjusting as we go to refine the steps we take. We are not afraid of taking chances, trying new methods, and thinking “outside the box”.

Sometimes all this planning and thinking gives us great results. Sometimes it does not. We have learned that business success is not a given, not a promised result. It is gained through hard work, dedication to our business, and the service that we provide to everyone, including those people whom we fail to sign as customers.

On the other hand, we must be aware of opportunities that may present themselves “out of the blue”, which are not the result of our planning and business projections. Sometimes we just happen to be in the right place at the right time. These are the times in which we must be intelligent and alert enough to take advantage of the chance which fate has given to us and reap the benefit of the person who is right in front of through chance.

When is the last time that we reacted to a chance conversation with a stranger in a coffee shop? How about the guest speaker at our networking meeting? Did we engage the visitor to our Chamber of Commerce meeting? Do we listen to conversations that we overhear in public places (coffee shops, restaurants, on or while awaiting mass transit, doctors’ waiting rooms, or any other places where people gather)? We must be aware of these openings and act on them.

We spend money, time, and effort on developing opportunities for our business to gain new prospects. We should also take advantage of those which present themselves “out of the blue” and take action when they arrive. Do we deserve these chances to find new customers, or have we really “earned” them? Of course we have. Never pass up a chance which presents itself when we least expect one and believe that it didn’t result from our hard work. Of course it did; we just didn’t anticipate it.

As business owners we must not only recognize opportunities that arrive when we do not expect them, we must take advantage of these “found” chances to expand our business customer list. We also should learn to expect these chances to arrive and know that we have the intelligence and planning to act positively and add some unintended prospect to our customer base.

Gratitude Marketing means that we develop relationships with others, helping them to find whatever they need. It therefore adds to our reputation and will present us opportunities which we may not expect to expand our business. Not only should we be ready to take advantage of the chance opportunities, we should also learn to expect them because of our Gratitude Marketing. Please leave me your comments, or email me at Jim@JimTeasley.com, or call me at 360-314-8691.