Relationship Building

LindaOJ here co-founder of the Small Business Community Network (SBCN). I realised the benefit of building relationships with people many years ago, before the onset of social media. As an unknown professional speaker building my business from scratch with no budget at all, and no credibility, I was determined to find a way to become known.

I had moved to Canada from the UK, not knowing that my life would be forever turned upside down. My only job experience had been as a secretary in the UK straight from High School and then I got married and became a stay at home mum to four wonderful children. After going through divorce I had to find work quickly and managed to find a job in a shoe store, I sold vacums and I worked in a hotel as a cleaner, three jobs with very little pay but when you need work anything goes.

Little did I know that the three jobs I had would offer me the experience I lacked in sales, marketing, retail and customer service many years later. After two diagnoses of breast cancer, I returned to school and decided to start my own business, Motivational Steps. No one knew who I was, I had no online credibilty, no testimonials, and very little experience. I set about getting to know people, find out about them, how I could help them, and I built strong relatinships which led to trust. I also wrote articles for other peoples newsletters, websites, anywhere I could be published in order to gain some credibilty.

All my hard work paid off and bringing us back to the present I am now the owner of two small businesses, and I am still busy building relationships with others and I encourage you to do the same. People do business with people they like and trust, the businesses who put the work into building trusted relationships are the ones that are succeeding and will continue to do so.