Do you take for granted the fact that your friends and colleagues and associates in the business community around you know what your company really does? I certainly have in the past, and everyday Im amazed by how little people actually know about my company, Cube Management, and what we actually do.

Just this morning I was having breakfast with a long-term associate of mine and we were just talking personally about our work and our personal life, etc, and we got into a discussion about our businesses, and we quickly realized how little we knew about each others companies and before I knew it we were talking about doing business together. Specifically this individual has a need to recruit a marketing person and they had no idea that we were in the business of supplying top talent in sales and marketing to companies.

So a lot of times if we just take the time to make sure that our businesses are known by others in our circle of influence, we can get business and referrals and open up doors to new opportunity that are right within our grasp.

So the question I ask of you is what are you doing to stay in touch with your friends, colleagues, and network associates to make sure theyre aware of what your company does? Its pretty easy to just neglect this area, and as a result, lose critical opportunities for referrals of business from people that are very close to you.

Heres a couple of ideas about how to overcome that: First of all, make sure to take time to explain to people and update them about whats going on in your company. Give them the elevator pitch about your company without spending a lot of time just talking about yourself. Also, when you meet friends or business associates for breakfast, ask them to give you their elevator pitch and a quick update on their business, its size, the kind of work that it does, who its customers are, etc. Youll be amazed on how that can lead to discussions of either opportunities for doing work together or making vital introductions to each other and referrals.

Also, make sure to keep your friends and business associates and network associates on your mailing lists so that when youre doing email campaigns and other types of updates on your companys products and services, they are kept up-to-date on what your company is doing as well.

Finally, make sure that you give them a copy of your business card and encourage them to visit your website to get information about your company. Youll discover that a lot of people that have known you for a long time havent been to your companys website and dont have a current understanding of what your company does, limiting their ability to give or refer business to you.

By just practicing these simple principles you should be able to get a lot more referrals and a lot more business opportunities without a lot more effort.