Building Good Relationships as an Entrepreneur – Five Tips

To succeed as an entrepreneur, one of the things you will need to do is build good relationships with others. Having good relationships as an entrepreneur is important. You may be able to get referrals from others, or you may need their help in the future. But most of all, it’s just good business ethics to be kind and try to develop relationship with the people around you.

Here are five great ways that you can build a relationship with someone.

1. Be interested in them. If you want to get someone talking and develop a relationship one of the best ways to do this is to ask them about themselves. But you don’t want to use this tactic unless you actually are interested in them. People can tell when someone is being disingenuous. Make sure that you are interested in what they are saying and your body language will reflect it.
2. Treat them with respect. This is something you should do in general in life. Just because someone doesn’t make as much money as you or hasn’t achieved the same level of success as you does not mean that they are a lesser person. In fact, they may surpass you someday and you definitely want them to remember you in a positive light. In the end you never know who could be a great help to you in the future and as the saying goes, never judge a book by its cover.
3. Ask them to help you with something. People actually enjoy helping others most of the time. While they might not enjoy being asked to help you move furniture asking someone for their advice or to take a look at something you’ve done and give you their opinion can be a wonderful relationship builder. It shows that you value them and who doesn’t like feeling of value by someone else.
4. Be friendly. You always want to be friendly to the people around you. Even if you are having a bad day yourself try to smile and remember that it isn’t their fault. You would be surprised how often people will tell others about “that guy who is always positive, always smiling.” You want to be that guy (or girl).
5. Finally, try to socialize outside of work. If you want to take a relationship to the next level and turn it from a business-friendship to an actual friendship, try inviting the person to an activity outside of work. Seminars and other learning events are great place to take a friend that you work with, especially if you both share the same goals.