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Time to move quickly and stay ahead of the competition by playing smarter and playing to my strengths which is personal relationships.
When I was younger and playing sports I had such a vast network of team mates in all walks of life.That kind of got screwed up as I left the country and went and spent a good 11 years in England. Even though I continued to play sports there it wasn't as strong a bond that I had with previous team mates. The English were sporty, but not as competitive to what I had been used to.
When I returned to South Africa my brother-in law was keen to get me in with his charitable organisation called the Round Table. I went to a number of meetings which were basically just an excuse to have a piss up on a week night. Most of the guys were professionals and had buzzing businesses already. I kind of felt like the odd one out as I was starting over. Financially I was fine but I needed to get cracking setting a business of my own up.
I have never been short of ideas or enthusiasm and have always believed deep down that something will work eventually. Any business needs a network to get going though as opening doors is sometimes not straightforward. By leaving the country for an extended period I unfortunately lost contact with loads of people who should in my case be part of my core network today.
Whilst I have been stuck at home for 5 weeks already I have spent some time trawling the internet to find my elusive team mates. Some have been dead ends and some have turned out trumps. I think the way the economy is going right now and the direction it is heading everyone should be grabbing onto everyone they know tightening the grip so everyone stays afloat.
I have managed to make some calls to help booster my business and see it as a positive step in the right direction. Times will be tough and I do expect them to get more challenging as the year progresses. It is at times like this you actually wish you did more networking and your friends had more connections than they did.
Back when I was in my early twenties I was a promotional representative for a cigarette company which allowed me access into many companies. This got me thinking as I had no idea what an opportunity that really was as I literally knew everyone in our city. I would drive on the freeway and my family and friends would eventually get used to it but nearly every other car used to flash their lights at me. My car was an advertising promotional tool which stood out in it's livery but I knew most of the people which is quite a scary thought. I would host events at night clubs or sporting events virtually every week and meet and talk with thousands of people. It was like being a celebrity, but not really being a celebrity if you get my drift.
I would give my eye teeth right now to know just one percent of the people from back then as they were from all walks of life. I am hoping by the time the lock down finishes and everything opens up I will have a new list of possible clients as I feel this is the golden time to grow. If you are not going to grow now it will be even harder in the future I believe as businesses will be reluctant to change suppliers in these uncertain times.
Having time to think and to strategise knowing there is nothing else you can do has been healthy I believe. You can also over think things as well, but as long as you are positive and have a plan you have nothing to lose.
For those of you that follow what I have been doing I spoke with Walmart again this week and they still haven't decided what route to take. We did the reverse auction and are prices are the best in the country I believe, yet they still drag their feet. I told the buyer things have changed somewhat since January and prices will reflect that which he acknowledged and understood. Landing a percentage of that contract would certainly help and looks like once you are in it would be sometime before it got changed again. This process has taken 9 months since non disclosure contracts were originally signed which is a slight joke.