I had yet another lovely thing happen to me this week because a great connection and good friend of mine (Cate Mackenzie) recommended me to someone else.

On this occasion it has resulted in my becoming one of the panel of Dragons for a school Dragons Den event in Harringey next week. I’m really excited about this, because it’s going to be a fab opportunity to speak to kids about business and entrepreneurialism, and see what they have to say.

I’m particularly keen to meet the Mini Dragons, who are current students at the school who are also running their own businesses. Impressive, huh?

To get back to my original point, this opportunity came my way because Cate and I have nurtured our relationship since we first met. It helps that we get on like a house on fire, but the fact that we took the time to meet up in the first place, and then to keep in touch by email & phone, and then further to send each other useful links, suggestions, and contacts, are what has built a solid level of trust and understanding between us.

This does not happen by accident. It happens because we both are open to new people, we make the effort to engage with them, and make a point of keeping a helpful level of contact flowing between us.

In this tip, I’ll explain why NOW is the best time to do this for yourself, and exactly what you need to do.

During the festive season people reach out to others and a sense of upbeat openness is in the air.

This is why there is no better time of year to say ‘hi’ to prospective joint venture or referral partners in the aim of enlarging both of your client bases. If you do it right, then your contact will be responded to in a positive way and you’ll have another person in your network to help you out.

Here’s what to do:

1. Pick 3 relevant businesses to contact (Do they have similar target clients to you? Do they work in the same geographic area? Are you in complementary industries).
2. Find the name of the person you want to speak to at that business.
3. Find out how you are going to contact them (email, twitter, linkedin, facebook or old-fashioned letter).
4. Send them a short message introducing yourself, telling them why you’re getting in touch, and giving them an opportunity to reciprocate.
5. Continue the conversation when they get back to you.

If you’d like a suggestion of what to say in your message, here’s an example for email:

“Dear Joe,

We’ve not met before, but I thought it would be a good idea to get in touch because you run a dog grooming service and I run a boarding kennel, so we probably have some clients in common.

I would love to find out more about your business and see if there is any way that we might be able to help each other out. You might be particularly interested in the open day that I run every Spring.

To see more about my work go to www.reallyniceboardingkennelsinlondon.com, and please let me know if you’d like to meet for a coffee and mince pie before you close for the holidays.

Have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Geraldine”

It’s as simple as that, and you never know what opportunities will come out of it.