FM Walsh & Associates Inc.

8 Deadly Sins of Business Development

Here are the notes from my presentation at the Dare to Thrive Conference on Friday, March 27, 2009.

1. Double Dutch – stop waiting to act on opportunities.  Take advantage of them instead.

2. External Excuses – take responsibility for your business and take action on those things that are not working well.

3. Flying Solo – don’t try to do everything yourself.

4. Trying a Little Bit of Everything – pick 3 tools to grow your business and use them consistently.

5. Failing to Plan – write out a quarterly business development plan on how you are going to grow your business.

6. Head in the Sand – don’t ignore the stuff that is not going well.  Don’t use the recession as an excuse to not grow your business.

7. Not Asking For What You Want – once you have your plan written, list the things you need to accomplish your plan and then ask people for what you need.

8. Playing Small Because of Money – there are a lot of free or inexpensive ways to grow your business – even with a limited budget you can still invest in business development.