Being able to take Friday afternoon off should always be important in one’s life. This is why I became an entrepreneur. To have this ability to say hey it’s Friday afternoon. I am going to network with colleagues/associates and friends. To take the time to build the business to the next level. Where you do not have to answer anyone, or anything is truly something special and rewarding. It really comes down to how you use this time that is there for you is the golden key. This focused time of social & dialed in time gave me an opportunity to build up and foster relationships with new and old associates. This focused energy on how one can set themselves free was very critical in starting out my entrepreneurial journey. Some can take time they have to be lazy, or not focus on much progress and pretend you are being productive.  Others can put on that focused productive hat on and dial in on what you need to do to build up more opportunity for yourself. Others just don’t have much time at all to focus on building up their personal development towards success.

I spent a good 5 to 7 years every Friday afternoon networking & connecting as much as I could, and meeting as many new contacts as possible. Many of these relationships still exist today. Relationships take work and they are not going to build up for yourself by doing nothing or the bare minimum. You and only you have to nurture your relations. Whether its approaching someone to shake someone’s hand and look them in the eye and introduce yourself. It is also important to have a niche to offer them. If you don’t have an established niche, then it can be an uphill climb in promoting your services that you have to offer. So, try and establish a niche or identify what your niche is first then you can focus on building up that niche product or service.  

Quick story I visited a trade show & franchise show in Calgary, Alberta Canada in 2019 and walked up to a franchisor who owned a successful senior care franchise at the time. I introduced myself and gave him my card and shot the breeze with the founder for 5 minutes. I circled back with an email a few days later to say very nice meeting you and look forward to talking more with you. I wanted to remind him I had several buyers interested in his brand and could be a win win for us together. Fast forward since then I have sold his senior care corporate territory in Vancouver for 1.4 million and have sold many senior care franchise territories for this brand as the years went on. This one introduction and approach coming in cold and introducing myself produced over $250k in revenue today for my company and is still re-occurring.

One card, one handshake and one introduction. Years later this initial prosperity keeps on continuing.  So why not go out and build up what you have to offer? First and foremost, find a niche and promote your business or franchise. As not one single person is going to do it better than you or even do it all.

Using technology to network and connect with new customers is another source and stream to connect with contacts. It is a source of new age networking and connecting as well. I am a big fan of doing both networking old school and using tech to do so.

Try and ask yourself how can you service someone you approach or look at doing advertising towards your reach of a customer? Ask yourself what is your target market? Identify this and focus then attack and approach those areas. Dial in on what is important not what looks good so much.

Key Areas to Focus on your entrepreneurial journey:

·      Build up relationships and relations with many new people and existing people.

·      Go on the offense to build up your niche and business and franchise.

·      Establishing a Side Hustle can be a nice way to entry point as an entrepreneur

·      Hand out your card – Oh you don’t have any well get some as they are still important and who cares if others say they aren’t used anymore.            Those people who say this many have never built up a business.

·      Use tech to build and connect with others in your customer base or field.

·      Go after your target market, who is your target market? Establish then go after this and invest in approaching your target market or                              customer  base.

·      If you are not willing to build up your own business on your own. Then one should focus on a franchise where one embraces the franchise                systems and then takes the systems that are there and grow it further. This is often a good approach pending on your situation and needs.

·      Just because you purchase a franchise now. Often owners think marketing is left to the brand to build my business for me. Your franchise                territory and location are yours and yours only, we all need to build up and foster relationships in the community. Waiting on someone else           to do it for me is not the best mindset for success. Many franchisees themselves focus on the head office and what others are doing. Where             one  should focus on what you can do and understanding your market to make your business better. Then connect with customers and                     community to allow for a fruitful situation to take shape.

·      Join Canadian and local associations and go to events where your clients and business interest lie. Do these values line up with your brand            and your business. If they do then go to these events, shows, online groups, etc.

·      Try and read as many entrepreneur books as you can.  I read 4 to 5 a year of entrepreneurs and which motivates you further. The 4 hour                     work week was a game changer for me by Tim Ferris.

In the end, to finish in closing. No one is going to bring success for you in your life. Not one person and not the government either. You have to be a go getter and go out there and get it done as an entrepreneur and franchisee. Entrepreneurs & franchisees have to have thick skin and hearing no has to be ok and not fall apart if you hear no. This should motivate you further each time you hear no. So go out there and build up something special as you are special in your own way. Only the strong survive mentality is where we are in life and be the strong one who shoots through the clouds.

Tony Kereluke

Top Shelf Franchising

www.topshelffranchising.com