How to Turn Your Rolodex into Cash

One of my pet peeves is the use of a Rolodex. In many cases they are not utilized effectively as an important business development tool. And in the modern era, the Rolodex has been reduced to little more than an electronic repository for business cards.

Note: For those of you unfamiliar with the term, a Rolodex is a rotating file device used to share business contact information. However, to clarify for this article I consider the Rolodex, business card file and Contacts list interchangeably to mean the same thing.

For years in the corporate world, I listened to executives talk about their "who's who" list of contacts and the size of their Rolodex, like this somehow made them more important. However, when it came to helping a sales team member with an executive introduction, closing a sale or resolving a customer problem, their Rolodex of business contacts was rarely of any value in helping move things along.

Several years ago, I met with a Director of Business Development candidate who began the interview by telling me that he had a Rolodex of over 2,000 businesses. I said that's great ... now tell me how many of those businesses you could call right now, get an appointment in the next week and close a sale in the next 30 days if you were offered the position?

You get my point. Your Rolodex is of no value unless it helps you grow your business and make money. So, how do you turn your Rolodex into cash? Here are a few things I would recommend for starters.

1. Purge your existing Rolodex of all business contacts that are not active. This will help you to narrow your focus and put more emphasis on those current relationships that are vital to your business growth.
2. Don't add new contacts to your Contacts list until you have developed a positive business relationship with that person. I would underscore the word positive - no energy vampires allowed!
3. Limit your business contacts to 3 or 4 specific areas - i.e. clients, partners, suppliers and "other". This will help you to prioritize and eliminate the clutter.
4. Establish group categories in Outlook, as an example, to make it easier for you to access and retrieve business contact lists by category designation, as needed.
5. Retain the remaining business cards you have accumulated for later use - i.e. newsletters, prospect mailings, etc., but keep them separated from your active Rolodex contacts.

Much the same as networking, developing an effective Rolodex or Contacts list you can turn into cash is about building relationships, not stockpiling business cards. Your prospect database, email and vendor lists are more appropriate placeholders for this additional stored information.

Constructing your Rolodex in this manner will help you to put more emphasis on the customer, partner and supplier relationships that are integral to your future success, while turning your Rolodex into cash today.


COPYRIGHT © 2010 John Carroll

8 Tips to Put Fun Back Into Your Work(place)

In the business world, we are notorious for putting fun last on our list of priorities and as a result, never getting to it. We're so busy during the year trying to meet our sales, revenue, expense, quality and customer satisfaction goals that we don't schedule time to have fun. That needs to change.

Are you having fun yet? If not, here are some things to consider in order to put fun back into your work(place).

1. Put fun first on your list of priorities, and the rest will fall into place.
2. Laugh more. Laughter can be a great medicine for what ails you and your workplace.
3. Be spontaneous with recognition, praise and a simple "thank you".
4. Schedule fun-based activities with employees, customers and suppliers.
5. Find your inner child. Let others see the humorous side of your personality.
6. Live with the 3E's - Energy, Enthusiasm and Empathy.
7. Take mental health breaks and/or extended lunches to refresh and re-energize.
8. Keep things in perspective. Your work is a means to an end, not the end!

Regardless of where you are in your career, if you're not having fun - what's the point?  Life is too short to not enjoy what you are doing, so find a way to put fun back into your work or do something else.

The continuing negative trends in business as a result of downsizing, restructuring and the financial markets meltdown have taken a huge toll on the workplace, and the workforce tasked with doing more with less. We need to find ways to reduce stress, improve productivity, and keep our morale and energy levels up.

Putting fun back into the work is a great place to start. So, what are you doing to put fun back into your work(place)?


COPYRIGHT © 2010 John Carroll