5 WAYS TO BOLSTER YOUR BUSINESS DURING THE HOLIDAYS

1. Make connections from one warm hand to another.
Zen Master Shunryu Suzuki, author of "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind," who founded the first Buddhist monastery in the Western hemisphere, said Buddhism is always best passed on "from warm hand to warm hand." The same is true of expanding your network. I ask every person who works with me to make a list of all the people who might be willing to help them in their publicity and marketing campaign. This includes friends, neighbors, relatives, colleagues, competitors, work-out buddies, classmates, alumni, people whose services you use (doctors, printers etc.), corporations, organizations, clubs, charities, writers, journalists, authors, and, people who know influential people, and image makers (people who influence others).

2. Have your friends introduce you to acquaintances at holiday gatherings.
This millennium season filled with Christmas and New Year's parties, is the perfect time to ask friends to introduce you to anyone who might help you further your career and vice versa. Ask them to start with the phrase: "I thought you two would like to meet each other because you have ______ in common." This sets up an immediate rapport between the two unknown people and they don't have to search for a mutual interest. Then have your friends tell them something extraordinary about you before they depart.

3. Ask a family member to throw you a party.
To help sell her first book, "Living Happily Ever After," Laurie Wagner's Aunt Marlene invited all of her friends to a gala celebration at her house in Los Angeles. She knew that the hundreds of people she invited would be interested in finding out about the secrets of staying together from couples married thirty years or more. She helped Laurie sell over 160 books! A number of people bought more than one to give as gifts. Well-connected Aunt Marlene also invited a reporter from the Los Angeles Times who wrote a glowing piece about the event. In her elegant invitations Aunt Marlene also did some savvy marketing. She gave people who couldn't attend the party the opportunity to pre-purchase books and have them sent. Sixty books were pre-sold to those supporters of Laurie and her project. Laurie said, "My aunt would host a party for any book I had, even it was on rodents." "Living Happily," which promised ever-lasting love, probably had more of draw.

4. Give your friends and business associates carte-blanche to help you.
Many of your friends and colleagues are waiting for the chance to help you. Allow them to. You might start with the phrase. "I'm looking to expand my business. Is there any way you can think of to help?" This phrase gives them the opportunity to use their imagination fully. Can your printer post a flyer on their bulletin board? Can friends email an announcement to their personal distribution list? Who loves to throw parties? My friend Colleen Newlin is a master networker. I've already asked her to help me get the word out about my upcoming book, "Sell Yourself Without Selling Your Soul™ - secrets to building your business, presence, product or cause with integrity and spirit," when it's available at the end of the year 2000. She is an excellent cook, sells diamonds and is an NLP therapist. Who knows, perhaps we'll have a dining and diamonds event.

5. Extend hand-holding from the holidays to the whole year round.
Allow all your friends to take you by the hand and join your hands to others. Find other warm hands by holding them, or holding them through the hands of others, and your circle of prosperity will continue grow.