Flush the Toilet: Young Entrepreneurs

You wake up every morning and work on your business

You’re calling those clients

You’re writing that code

You’re writing those business plans

Great…. Great…. Great… That’s all good and dandy, but what are you doing in your day to reach out to fellow entrepreneurs? That’s one of the most important questions that you should be asking yourself everyday. No, I’m serious – you really need to ask yourself every single day as an entrepreneur.

Sure, there is no doubt that the solo-entrepreneur exists; he or she may feel that they don’t need to reach out to other entrepreneurs to become successful and build a rockin’ business. To an extent, that may be true… but it’s a not a wise choice and isn’t a smart play for spreading your business.

Kick-START Your Networking Journey

Emails Dude!

Yup, that’s right. Fire up that Gmail and Yahoo account and start sending off emails to people who you simply want to talk with. They may be business owners, people you encounter on Myspace, or one of the other 1,233,894 social networking sites – doesn’t matter, just do it.

Make a Call

Nowadays, people are easily accessible through phone and won’t mind spending a few minutes talking with you. People love speaking about themselves and what they are doing with their lives. It’s a win-win situation: you get to listen and learn from someone else’s experiences and they feel absolutely great that someone actually cares to listen to their story.

Food Time…. Yum Yum

Would you image that some of the best business deals and partnerships are formed over a good ol’ meal. Bill Gates formed many of the original ideas of Microsoft while eating fast food and brainstorming on how to enter the market.

It’s as simple and taking the time to reach out to entrepreneurs in your area – Craigslist – and offering to get some coffee. You’ll eat, talk about business, and have a great time. If nothing amounts from the meeting, then at least you’ll have met someone new; someone that is now aware of your company that wasn’t a week ago. You never know what this new relationship could grow into.

Nothing to Lose

At the end of the day, you have absolutely nothing to lose and the world to gain when you take some time to reach out to fellow entrepreneurs. You’ll be broadening your horizons and making your life much more fulfilling. It’s a great feeling meeting new people and learning from what others have to share.

I’ll leave you with some images of when I met with Michael Simmons and Josiah Mackenzie last week at Starbucks in the Chelsea district of Manhattan. It was an amazing time and a fruitful meeting.

Feel free to shoot me an email if you’re ever in the NYC area – always looking to meet other entrepreneurs.

Rock on!