It's Not Who You Know - It's Who You Used to Know

There are countless ways to find new clients. Whether it be from advertising, marketing, networking or referrals. Many business owners spend a lot of time, effort and money persuing these avenues in search of a larger client base to continually grow their business.

How many people though, take into consideration the people they already know or even better, the people they used to know who they've lost touch with. I'm talking way back, like high school and college. You laugh but it's true! Many of the people who you went to school with or were friends with back in the day could very well use your product or services today!

It's time to dust off that yearbook and take a walk down memory lane. I have to tell you, I did this recently and it was so much fun to look back at the clothes and the hair and all that. But what really surprised me was that I had forgotten about more than half of my graduating class! I still keep in touch with a select few good friends from school but haven't thought about most of my classmates for the 18 some odd years since we graduated. Sad really! So I decided to do a little searching. I started by logging on to LinkedIn and searching for some of the people I went to school with. Sure enough, I found a few! One is a successful lawyer in Michigan, another works for a major airline in Texas, and so on. When I ran out of options on LinkedIn, I decided to try a Facebook search since I knew more people were probably using it than LinkedIn. I was right. I found several of my old High School cronies and requested to add them to my friends list. We now keep in touch on a regular basis.

Remember the old classmate who works for the airline in Texas? He has started a company called Giving Grinch which is focused on teaching people how to identify their true needs and then finding ways to meet those needs in a financially responsible manner. When he found out I had written some articles and had a VA business he asked if I would contribute to his monthly newsletter. I'm contacting him this week about submitting my first article for the newsletter.

Just recently I got back in touch via LinkedIn with an old college professor of mine who I used to be a Teacher's Assistant for. He and I have been catching up on lost time and he informed me recently that he has started a business creating and selling online courses. When he found out what I did he asked if I would be interested in doing some work for him.

Around the time I started my business full time I found out that an old boss of mine was between assistants and needed help. I contacted him and told him what I was up to these days. We had a meeting and I've been his VA for over 2 months now.

You see? I didn't have to do any type of fancy advertising or marketing to find these "new" contacts. I had them all along, I had just forgotten about them.

Who's lurking in your past that you could dig up and bring into your present? Old high school or college friends? Former coworkers or even employers? Before you spend another dime on looking for new clients or customers, think of who you already know that may be able to benefit from what you have to offer. You might be surprised at what (or who) you find!

Have a great week!