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Portsmouth
by Keen

health updates and other stuff

Went in for my 2 month cancer screen yesterday, all is well. My voice is better than it's been in 8 years! Makes meetings more fun, I'm able to resume the consulting part of my business as well.

Business is growing at a rapid pace, we added 2 new accounts this week! My guys are off today so I'm going solo, I'll probably only work until 1pm or so because of the heat.

Still adding friends and contributing to Inside919, not much happening with it so far, just a lot of contacts, posts, comments, etc. I did, however quickly decide that Podcasting was a complete waste of time, my customers voted in a survey and only like 4% of them said they'd even listen. I see a lot of posts about all these networking events, just don't have the time to attend, I think that's great, it's nice to be THAT busy and not really need the extra business!

Updates

Another long week ahead, unlike some business owners, I'm a working owner. I'm actually out in the field with the crews every day making sure every job is done to my high standards. Sitting in an office just won't accomplish the results I need nor produce work standards like we have. I'm enjoying Inside919, no leads from it yet but it's a new site and anything new takes time. For me it's a good fit as I don't have time for the network "lunches" that you see cropping up everywhere. I did these meetings for years and found them to be counterproductive whereas online networking can be done anytime.

It's been 4 weeks since I completed my radiation and I'm definitely noticing differences. The most major one is my voice is better than it's been in 5 years! It's nice to be able to speak clearly and loudly if needed, lol. It was worth all the pain!

Summer Party! August 9th!

SummerParty 2008X - Upload a Document to Scribd

Read this document on Scribd: SummerParty 2008X

Getting ready for a really long week!

With the businesses growing and the rain every few days we are swamped with work. This upcoming week promises to be one of the busiest ever. I guess I should be happy because that means profit! I'm ready for cooler weather and it's only the 5th of July, ugh! The burned area on my neck is completely healed and the nausea is gone as well:) It's now been three weeks since my last treatment. I gotta say the whole cancer thing really taught me who my REAL friends were. Folks that I found weren't true friends I've severed ties with, something I should have done years ago as there were a lot of "dead weight" friends on the list. Best part is, throughout all this I've met a lot of NEW friends!

Health Updates

My burns are gone & healed, sore throat better, and the sick stomach gone as well. It's still only been 2.5 weeks since I finished up my radiation, it'll be a couple of months before I'm back to my old self again.....

My take on all this networking stuff

Everywhere I look I see blogs or meeting type groups related to "networking", they appear like ants to sugar. My personal experience with networking is as follows: I was in several chapters of 2 different networking groups in the Triangle Area for 3 years with outstanding attendance. I also I acquired around 8 clients from this 3 year venture. I also learned that networking itself involves a LOT of time and most of the folks that are really into it have way too much time on their hands. That time spent SELLING, running leads, placing really good creative ads in the right places would net far better results. If they were doing these things they wouldn't have the time nor need to do all the networking. I DO, however recommend a couple of websites to get your business name out on, inside919.com, Craigslist.org, and Linkedin are my top 3. You don't have to attend silly meetings, you get results without a lot of time or money, and can monitor what others are doing to expand their businesses. When I was in all these weekly lunch meetings, I met some great people and ate a lot of good food, however to develop business my time would have been better spent elsewhere. Most of the really good leads I acquired were gotten outside these groups. I'm certainly not an expert, however I've been successfully self employed since 1990 and have bought and sold a couple of businesses as well as been successful in the corporate world back before I became self employed. People frequently come to me for advice when either starting a new business, selling an established business, or other entrepreneurial adventures. Inquire about my consulting rates if interested. I'm currently getting ready to start our second branch of our business along the North Carolina Coast!