February 25, 2008

Tip 2: Opportunities

Opportunities abound for minority women in business. In some industries, if you distinguish yourself as an Asian-American, African-American, Latina/Hispanic or Native American-owned business, you receive a slight competitive advantage (for example, if you’re competing for state and local contracts). You might be in a sector where your unique insight or experience serves to broaden your company’s focus and better address a particular target market. You joining a board or acting in a leadership or executive position also gives your business an opportunity to benefit from your specific knowledge and background.

Taking a look at the industry you work in now (and/or the industry you want to work in), I recommend taking the following actions as you start to increase your network and establish connections to potential RFPs, projects, subcontracting opportunities, and bids.

Your network is your net worth
“Never Eat Alone” by Keith Ferrazzi details the opportunities available to you when you expand your network. Your network may be built with friends, friends of friends, associates through alumni groups, trade groups, speaking groups like Toastmasters, professional and business-to-business groups like BNI and Chamber of Commerce, and any activity, hobby, extracurricular or religious groups.

Your database of contacts should constantly be growing (exponentially) and your ability to foster connections between the people in your network will truly determine the types of referrals and information you receive that’s relevant to your own professional development.

Strive to expand your circle of contacts to include individuals in different industries, in different geographical areas, and at different levels of expertise, from those just starting out to those nearing retirement. Send out periodic “pings” to your network that check in on how your associate is doing, what’s new in their life, and/or a resource like a link or news item that you think may be useful to them. When it comes to business, people will always choose someone they know, or someone that’s recommended to them, over a stranger, so your task is to increase the number of people that you know and to do so in a positive, proactive and beneficial way.

Keep informed of industry trends
Have an assistant or service send you a review of the week, or subscribe to magazines in your specific industry, or set up a Google News Alert to get the latest news on your target keywords delivered to your e-mail box. When you have good research, you keep abreast of trends, key players, mergers, acquisitions, expansions, and moves in your field of interest. Knowing this information opens up many opportunities for you to be “in the right place at the right time,” so take advantage of news sources.

Provide excellent value
I recommend aiming for quality, consistency, and value. What types of research findings, charts, questionnaires, or bullet points may you offer in your print, web, tv, radio, or in-person materials? When you add value to an experience with you, you provide a service, a data point, or a point of view that will be helpful to your potential prospect, visitor, or fellow citizen. Strive for the value-added aspects of your work and you’ll be rewarded with even more opportunities.

Share your knowledge
Perhaps you’ve done your own research or summary you may offer as a white paper, or perhaps you have an ability to post an interview with a key decisionmaker, or perhaps you have specific knowledge of a niche market: all of these pieces of knowledge, when shared, will establish you as a resource person. If you’re an expert in your particular field, share it! You may act as a spokesperson, a speaker, a research authority, or a source who’s “in the know.”

When you share your knowledge, you’ll open the door to many more potential prospects, associates, and power partners who come across your work, read about you in the news, or hear about you from other channels. This type of exposure helps build your credibility, authority, and reach, all of which help contribute to your bottom line.

If you don’t yet have anything to share, find a niche topic and become an expert on it. For instance, this blog focuses solely on women’s success, particularly in personal and professional development. My aim as the editor and main author is to provide valuable resources to you, and if you google me (Monica S. Flores), you’ll see that my search engine listings have expanded in the two years I’ve been blogging.

Give back
Find ways to share back with your community or industry, for example by working as a volunteer, serving as a board member, or mentoring a young person. One of the great rewards of your increasing success is your ability to contribute to other’s successes, so develop your values list and stick with it, either through a gift of your time, your knowledge, or your money.

For example, on this blog, we donate back 10% of net profits from book sales and blog advertising to Kiva.org to support 0% loans for women entrepreneurs in developing countries.

We all rise together. Find opportunities in your market, expand your network to reach that market, keep informed, share your knowledge, provide excellent value, and contribute back to your community.