For instance, when you buy a car in the U.S., most states require you to have car insurance.

When you buy a house

When we relocated recently, we decided to sell our old car instead of transporting it cross country, and buy another one once we arrived at our destination.

Since we were new in town, we asked people at my husband's workplace for their recommendations for car dealers. We got 3 names. We visited them all, and settled on a car we liked.

As we were getting ready to buy the car, we ran into a little snag: we needed to have car insurance in the state of Ohio, before we could drive the car home.

We knew we could transfer our insurance from California to Ohio, so we hadn't worried about this detail too much.

However, as it turned out, we bought this car on a Saturday. And while the California insurance office was open, the Ohio branch was not! So we could not do the transfer that day. We had to wait until Monday.

With everything else we had to do, I didn't want to wait. I wanted this "task" to be completed and off my "to do" list!

So I asked our car salesman if he could recommend an insurance company.

He said he liked his own insurance agent and could call them to find out if they were open.

They were. And they got our business.

Well, 3 things occurred to me, as I thought about this experience:

1. The insurance agent made a sale on a Saturday morning, without any effort on his part.

   Well, actually, the effort was invested earlier -- when he was serving and taking care of his client (our car salesman).

   So when we asked for a recommendation, it was a "no-brainer" for our car salesman to give us his name.

2. Our car dealership seems to make a lot of sales. As I drive around these days, it seems that every other car on the road is from that dealership.

   How many people go to that dealership in the first place, because a trusted friend or colleague recommended it to them?

   Related to this, it occured to me that we had asked several people for recommendations for car dealerships, but only 3 responded with names.

   Why didn't the others? Is it because they don't have cars, or is it because they didn't have an out-of-the-ordinary experience with the dealership they went to?

3. There are "natural" partnership opportunities among certain businesses.

   For instance, when you buy a car in the U.S., most states require you to have car insurance.

   When you buy a house

   Stop and Go Marketing
   Stop and Go marketing and ENERGY go hand in hand. Stop and Go marketing says what it is. We go out to market for time periods and then we get busy with our work and stop marketing. Here is the problem with that. Using the example of a funnel filled with clients and business contacts, when we stop marketing the funnel becomes empty over a time period. When the clients dry up we go back to our funnel, which is empty and once again, we panic and ru
   r, we ran into a little snag: we needed to have car insurance in the state of Ohio, before we could drive the car home.

   We knew we could transfer our insurance from California to Ohio, so we hadn't worried about this detail too much.

   However, as it turned out, we bought this car on a Saturday. And while the California insurance office was open, the Ohio branch was not! So we could not do the transfer that day. We had to wait until Monday.

   With everything else we had to do, I didn't want to wait. I wanted this "task" to be completed and off my "to do" list!

   So I asked our car salesman if he could recommend an insurance company.

   He said he liked his own insurance agent and could call them to find out if they were open.

   They were. And they got our business.

   Well, 3 things occurred to me, as I thought about this experience:

   1. The insurance agent made a sale on a Saturday morning, without any effort on his part.

      Well, actually, the effort was invested earlier -- when he was serving and taking care of his client (our car salesman).

      So when we asked for a recommendation, it was a "no-brainer" for our car salesman to give us his name.

   2. Our car dealership seems to make a lot of sales. As I drive around these days, it seems that every other car on the road is from that dealership.

      How many people go to that dealership in the first place, because a trusted friend or colleague recommended it to them?

      Related to this, it occured to me that we had asked several people for recommendations for car dealerships, but only 3 responded with names.

      Why didn't the others? Is it because they don't have cars, or is it because they didn't have an out-of-the-ordinary experience with the dealership they went to?

   3. There are "natural" partnership opportunities among certain businesses.

      For instance, when you buy a car in the U.S., most states require you to have car insurance.

      When you buy a house

      Best Ways To Optimize Your Office
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      wait. I wanted this "task" to be completed and off my "to do" list!

      So I asked our car salesman if he could recommend an insurance company.

      He said he liked his own insurance agent and could call them to find out if they were open.

      They were. And they got our business.

      Well, 3 things occurred to me, as I thought about this experience:

      1. The insurance agent made a sale on a Saturday morning, without any effort on his part.

         Well, actually, the effort was invested earlier -- when he was serving and taking care of his client (our car salesman).

         So when we asked for a recommendation, it was a "no-brainer" for our car salesman to give us his name.

      2. Our car dealership seems to make a lot of sales. As I drive around these days, it seems that every other car on the road is from that dealership.

         How many people go to that dealership in the first place, because a trusted friend or colleague recommended it to them?

         Related to this, it occured to me that we had asked several people for recommendations for car dealerships, but only 3 responded with names.

         Why didn't the others? Is it because they don't have cars, or is it because they didn't have an out-of-the-ordinary experience with the dealership they went to?

      3. There are "natural" partnership opportunities among certain businesses.

         For instance, when you buy a car in the U.S., most states require you to have car insurance.

         When you buy a house

         How to Start a Taxi Company
         Setting up and running your own taxi or private hire firm is by no means simple as there are regional differences and management styles are very different in different parts of the UK.2005-2006, the private hire and taxi industry was worth approx ?2.6 billion. Over 500,000 drivers in the UK. Taxi use has steadily increased over the last 20 years - 32 per cent of the public use a taxi every month, compared to just 16 per cent in the mid-1980s.<
         ffort was invested earlier -- when he was serving and taking care of his client (our car salesman).

         So when we asked for a recommendation, it was a "no-brainer" for our car salesman to give us his name.

      4. Our car dealership seems to make a lot of sales. As I drive around these days, it seems that every other car on the road is from that dealership.

         How many people go to that dealership in the first place, because a trusted friend or colleague recommended it to them?

         Related to this, it occured to me that we had asked several people for recommendations for car dealerships, but only 3 responded with names.

         Why didn't the others? Is it because they don't have cars, or is it because they didn't have an out-of-the-ordinary experience with the dealership they went to?

      5. There are "natural" partnership opportunities among certain businesses.

         For instance, when you buy a car in the U.S., most states require you to have car insurance.

         When you buy a house

         Oxford Calling: My Interview Experience With Oxford University
         It’s a norm for British top universities to conduct interviews with their candidates prior to admission. For most of the universities the interview merely becomes a formality because the admission decision would be based on your college tutor’s report and your result prediction. But for some high profile universities such as Oxford and Cambridge, the interview can become the determining factor that would decide your entry there.If you are succ
         o this, it occured to me that we had asked several people for recommendations for car dealerships, but only 3 responded with names.

         Why didn't the others? Is it because they don't have cars, or is it because they didn't have an out-of-the-ordinary experience with the dealership they went to?

      6. There are "natural" partnership opportunities among certain businesses.

         For instance, when you buy a car in the U.S., most states require you to have car insurance.

         When you buy a house, you usually need to work with a real estate lawyer, a home inspector, and a financial institution. Later on, you may also need to find other service providers for your new house, such as plumber, electrician, etc.

         As I did in the car anecdote, I remembered that when I bought my house, I kept asking my realtor for recommendations for all of these service providers.

         How many small business owners take advantage of this phenomenon?

      People ask for recommendations for a wide range of products and services everyday, as a normal part of daily life.

      And their friends and colleagues recommend their favorite ones to them when asked. (This, of course, is called a "referral" by the business that sells that particular product or service!)

      Is your business benefitting from this kind of networking that happens everyday and all the time?

      If not, why do you suppose this is?

      If yes, are you doing anything in particular to encourage people to recommend you or your business? Be sure to do more of it.