You've heard the saying, its not what you know, but who you know. In business, this statement could not be truer. Getting to people who can influence and get results in your network is essential towards your success.

Getting people "in the know" as they say can help your business to grow quickly. These people in this business are the proverbial net of contacts that are part of your select group that helps you.

Many of these people are influential in the community in some way, and you should make sure you guard them away from people you do not trust. These are people you should touch base with regularly to get feedback and information on happenings in the business world. Also, volunteer to help these people to get what they need. A lot is said for those who unselfishly give to influencers. Don't always try to get pay back from them immediately. Trust me, they will remember that you helped them and will slowly welcome you in their family in due time.

Your who's who network should include varying type of personalities and backgrounds. These can be high-ranking government officials to a lowly paid connector. Never miss an opportunity to get information, resources and people on your side. I have heard people state that using people is wrong. That's an untrue statement in my eyes. Using people is fine, but "abusing" people are the problem. Use your network to help you to build your business, just make sure its both ways. If you are using people in a fashion that everybody wins, then that cannot be a bad thing.

Beware of the "sharks". Sharks are those people who come into your life to take and take and take. Their bane existence is one that can absolutely ruin your credibility if you are not careful. Do not introduce these people to your who's who network. Once in, they will spread through your entire network like a virus. I have found that the way you treat your network is how they will treat you.

The common denominator amongst the who's who network is that they are great at getting useful information that benefits them. To bring value to them, you must become proficient at getting useful information that may benefit them. In turn, the same will be bestowed unto you. It's a simple yet effective concept.

Your who's who contacts are regular people too. It's not always about money with them. These people will do what ever they can to help you, and just want your respect and help when you can. Developing a quality list can take time as "eagles never fly together, instead, you find them one at a time." Constantly work at finding these people for your network and build the network as you would a house. Solid foundation and with strong columns.

Sometimes we get tired of networking with people. We hit a wall, so to speak. You feel stale and stuck whereby you don't know what to do. At this point you simply have to make one decision. Just take a break.

You have realize that by you taking a break and doing nothing, you actually will be able to recharge and come back more refreshed and productive. There are times that you simply need not be productive and take time from people.

In the business-networking world when you have attended many business functions and seen people over and over, you can simply get bored or burnt out. Sometimes you have a stretch of meeting "bad" networkers and may even feel that networking does not work for you. You will feel like not talking, emailing or just not attending functions you are used to attending. It is that this point you should check yourself and take a little break so you don't get bitter. It happens to all of us.

Take a cruise, fly away somewhere, just do something other than networking with people for business. You can give yourself sometime not to think about it, and just enough time to miss it. I am writing this chapter as I am going through these thoughts. These feelings I could not ignore, after attending over two hundred events over the past year or so.

Remember, people really don't want to meet a grumpy or burned out individual. So, check yourself if you are getting to that point and take sometime out. Clearly, things are getting fuzzy and you can use this time to get some perspective or clarity in your life. I usually find that at this point the break can only help me to come back better and more focused. New ideas can emerge from more brainstorming and self-improvement can develop from spending more time working on me.

Recently, I have met so many people who are unhappy while networking. At some point this can wear on you because you start to wonder if you are attracting people who are like you. After a short time, these people either disappear temporarily or you never see them again because they become bitter about everything.

Don't get yourself in a position that you can't see that more harm than good is achieved by not taking the break you may badly need. Many times people will not tell you how you come across because they don't care or don't know how to tell you. You may sound too crazy or disgruntled for them to get involved. Also, participate in some positive activity that encourages you on a regular basis. Hang around positive people as they may help to elevate you when you are feeling bitter or down. Don't take it personally if a "friend" is sharing with you how bitter or inappropriate you may sound at events. You are usually the last to find out and only good friends will share their feelings about your behavior. You could be losing a lot of opportunities and money and not even realize it.

One of the first things we teach our students is the proper use of "Networking", as well as the best ways to use their time and energy when they are networking. Over the last 15 years, I have watched people spend many hours networking. As a matter of fact I was one of those people. It is exactly how I got the moniker, "Queen of Networking". One day, my mentor asked me to begin to track all my time. Time that I spent networking, time I spent answering the phone, emails, working on projects, surfing the net, and so on. This was an eye opening experience. I found that most of the stuff I was doing was not having a positive impact on my business bottom line.

60% of all of my activities in a given week were around networking. Going to the events, following up with every single card that I collected, staying in contact via email and phone calls, screening and fielding emails and phone calls from people who met me while networking, signing up for other events, driving to events, preparing for the events, checking and updating my social networking sites and so forth and so on. You get the picture; I was a very busy lady. Busy does not equal profitable.

Once we had a clear understanding about where my time was going, it was now time to look at how much of that time was actually having a positive impact on my businesses bottom line. What became painfully clear is while 60% of my time was spent, adding people to my database, and networking, networking, networking, 80% of my income was coming from 10-12 people, 228 where people whom I knew, supported and referred while the other 3000 names and contacts in my database were just that, names and unfulfilled relationships.

The most important feedback that my mentor gave me was simply this statement; "Imagine what your business would look like if you spent 60% of your time nurturing the 10-12 people who are helping to grow your business." It was a statement that would keep me up at night.

Today you will not find me at every event and when I attend a networking event, I do so very strategically. I have a goal in mind, a purpose to be fulfilled and connections to make for at least one of those 12 people who were helping me to build my business. When I network for others, my own business grows with very little effort on my part. I have the opportunity to see Givers Gain in action.

Before you go to your next networking event, ask yourself the following questions:

* Where is most of my business coming from?
* Which organizations are producing results for my business?
* Who passes me the most business?
* What are my goals for the event?
* Who do I need to help?
* How can my networking activities help my referral sources?
* What activities have I invested in my existing network?
* What is my networking budget in both time and money?

Bottom line is this, what impact is all of that networking having on your bottom line?

Good networking takes good listening. Unfortunately, most people believe that good networking is telling everyone about himself or herself. What good is word of mouth if nobody is listening?

Think about the last networking event that you attended, was everyone quietly listening, maintaining eye contact, asking valuable questions, and responding to you with more than just uh huh.

Listening is the most important part of good networking, it allows you to learn what others are trying to accomplish, hear others express needs they may have, and be able to connect those who can help them.

Following are 7 tips for better listening at your next networking even

1. Maintain active eye contact. Do not look over the persons shoulder as if there might be someone better coming into the room. This sends the clear message to the person you are speaking to and that message is; you are not important, and I really don't care what you have to say.

2. Ask great questions. People love to talk about themselves, so ask them, questions about what they do, why they chose to do it, how did they get into their business, and what do they love to do when they are not working in their business. Stephen Covey says that you must seek to understand before being understood, asking questions allows you to understand a person better.

3. Find some common ground. When you ask about skills or interest, you will often find things that you have in common. Common ground leads to good rapport with others.

4. Take notes whenever possible, you can jot a few notes about what you have learned on the back of the business card. I always ask permission before writing on the back of another persons business card. Not because I really believe it will be a problem, but because when I ask, they always say "Thanks for Asking" and they remember that I honored their business card.

5. Stay engaged in the conversation. People are often busy thinking about what they are going to say when it is their turn to speak. By asking questions, commenting back, and making comments you stay involved in what is being said versus what you are going to say.

6. If the room is too noisy for you to hear, ask your partner to step out of the crowd. Most open networking events are very loud and they seem to get louder as the evening goes on. Ask the person you are speaking to if they will step to the sideline so that you can better hear them. Again, this is another reason to maintain eye contact.

7. At the end of the conversation give some feed back, emphasize something you may have heard or learned from that person.

God gave us two ears and one mouth, let's use them proportionately. Listen twice as much as you speak. By doing so you will be able to connect more people, give better referrals, and become a better gatekeeper.

Hazel M Walker, owns three award winning franchise's. She is a 10 year owner of two BNI Franchises where she teaches members how to leverage their time and network to build each others businesses. She is also a Referral Institute franchise owner and teaches Business Owners how to harness the Science of Referrals to develop Referrals for Life. Hazel is a published author in New York Times best sellers Masters of Networking and Masters of Sales. As a member of the National Speakers Association she travels the world speaking to businesses and women's organizations on the topics of networking to create a life you love.

"Life is not what you know, it's who you know." This is a great quote that sums up the goal of a window cleaner. If you plan on making your window cleaning adventure a long-term money-making machine, then you need to introduce yourself to the right people.

Window cleaning is all about having the right amount and types of clients. You can't just get 150 residential clients and stop focusing on your marketing strategy. These clients will eventually switch window cleaners (maybe because of price or because of a scheduling problems), and statistics indicate that every five years a business loses over 70% of its customer base.

But by knowing the right people, you can be guaranteed more work than you can handle. That's window cleaning utopia, when you get to the place where you can turn down jobs or pass them off to fellow window cleaners. But you will only be able to have your "pick-of-the-litter" by making connections with the right people. Some of these people are real estate agents, general contractors, painters, and carpet-cleaners. If you take the time to make proper networks with fellow service industries, then they will keep you in mind when their customers are in needs of your service.

In order to make these connections realistic you may need to offer some type of promotional. This may be a 15% discount for all real estate agents on all window cleaning and power washing services. But this type of offer is well worth it when you consider the money that is saved in marketing expenses. Some window cleaning companies are paying an average of up to $30 per new client. This can be a huge burden, especially during the slow seasons, so make sure that you take the time every day to introduce your service to a couple of the "proper networks."