Talk Your Business Up - You Never Know Who Will Hear You
In general, I'm a pretty quiet guy. I try to live by the whole 'actions speak louder than words' philosophy. Rarely do I talk myself or my business up without someone asking a bunch of questions. While my "humble" attitude may be seen as a good human trait, it's not necessarily a good business trait.
As a business owner, you need to find a way to constantly talk about your business without sounding cocky or condescending. I am beginning to open up and talk more - and today I saw the fruits of my labor in action.
I was standing in the lunch line at work, waiting to pay for my salad (I think we have an above average salad bar at work, especially considering that it's at a work cafeteria), when the person behind me struck up a conversation about my business.
At first I was in a little bit of shock - we are acquaintances but I was certain that I had never mentioned my business to him. He told me that "people talk, word gets around" and then proceeded to pitch an idea to me.
Now, people do this all the time. They desperately want to contribute their two cents and most of the time it's either something ridiculously simple that I already do or something ridiculously unfeasible that any sane person would never do. So I nod and smile and then change the subject (I can only imagine what someone like Dave Chappelle has to deal with when some tool comes up to him and pitches him a new skit idea every five minutes, it must drive him nuts).
But this guy had a legitimately good idea. Better than that - an amazing idea! So we chatted for about half an hour after lunch. In the end, I may have a new business partner and SportsLizard.com may be taking on something extremely new and exciting (I'll tell you more as we hammer out the details).
It just goes to show you the value of talking about your business.
As a business owner, you need to find a way to constantly talk about your business without sounding cocky or condescending. I am beginning to open up and talk more - and today I saw the fruits of my labor in action.
I was standing in the lunch line at work, waiting to pay for my salad (I think we have an above average salad bar at work, especially considering that it's at a work cafeteria), when the person behind me struck up a conversation about my business.
At first I was in a little bit of shock - we are acquaintances but I was certain that I had never mentioned my business to him. He told me that "people talk, word gets around" and then proceeded to pitch an idea to me.
Now, people do this all the time. They desperately want to contribute their two cents and most of the time it's either something ridiculously simple that I already do or something ridiculously unfeasible that any sane person would never do. So I nod and smile and then change the subject (I can only imagine what someone like Dave Chappelle has to deal with when some tool comes up to him and pitches him a new skit idea every five minutes, it must drive him nuts).
But this guy had a legitimately good idea. Better than that - an amazing idea! So we chatted for about half an hour after lunch. In the end, I may have a new business partner and SportsLizard.com may be taking on something extremely new and exciting (I'll tell you more as we hammer out the details).
It just goes to show you the value of talking about your business.
posted by Adam McFarland at
12/05/2005 08:18:00 PM
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