Specialisation, communication and synergy - what non profit organisations can learn from hunter gatherers

According to scientist, author and journalist Matt Ridley in  'The Rational Optimist',  hominid societies such as Homo Erectus made excellent, functional hand axes from flint.  They, and similar pre-human societies did this for the best part of a million years, but without ever improving the design or moving on to a new and better technology.  Then Homo Sapiens (that's us!) came along, and before you knew it we were making bows, arrows, ploughs, fishing hooks, nets, bricks, wheels, pots, cloth, beads and canoes. That process has continued apace until today we have cellophane, cell phones and stem cell therapy.    Ridley argues that a key driver of cultural and technological innovation since hunter gatherer times has been trade.  His erudite and detailed proposition can be (rather simplistically - sorry Matt!) distilled into the following points:

1) When a human population gets big enough - or achieves a numerical critical mass - then its members can begin to specialise.  Instead of everybody pitching in with the hunting and the gathering (as was the case with Homo Erectus and the Neanderthals), some can concentrate on weaving, others on fishing, some on spearmaking, others on farming and so on.

2) We are the only advanced apes that instinctively barters goods and services - i.e swopping one thing for another, dissimilar thing.  Although chimpanzees have been known to exchange food for other food stuffs, or reciprocally groom each other, true barter is different.  It must entail someone being prepared to swop wheat for beads, or dye for leather.

3) This talent for barter, plus the inclination to specialise, meant that when 'Oz' decided to focus on making fish hooks from reindeer bone (and so became really good at it) and 'Ug' decided to concentrate on the fishing - thus increasing his skill, and then both decided to trade these skills....Well then both Oz and Ug benefited out of all proportion to the efforts they made.  This was a classic 'win - win' scenario.

4) Further, as our ancestors spread out from Africa and across Asia into what is now Australasia and so on, they came into contact with other tribes and races who had developed their own technologies.  These were traded, people learned new things and further innovations were made. 

5) Eventually, you went out and bought an Iphone.

Now as I was reading this I was minded of something else I had read about how, pound for pound, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has more Nobel Prizes for Science than any other institution on the planet.  Even heavy weights like Cambridge University pale in comparison.  And (so the argument goes), this isn't because the staff and students are significantly brighter than those from Cambridge, Caltech or Lausanne's Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale, but because they operate in an environment which is more conducive to information exchange.  Simply put, while the Dons and PHD students at Cambridge toil away in the physical silos created by separate colleges along the banks of the Cam, their peers at MIT enjoy an architectural infrastructure which is to a greater degree integrated and has more food courts, sports areas, shared recreational facilities and pedestrian corridors beween faculties and departments where at any given time, you are more likely to bump into someone who has just had a great idea!

'Very interesting' you may say - 'but what has this got to do with my situation'?  Well, firstly, to be human is to be an innovator.  Innovation is the norm. Not to innovate is the weird thing. Secondly, your organisations' skills and expertise represent a high degree of specialisation.  As an innovator with a specialism you should be able to find ways to leverage your skills to find solutions,  but only if you meet with, communicate with and share with enough people. So, in these challenging times, we all have to get off our lardies and seek out other interesting people to talk to, swop ideas with and trade information, skills, talents, opinions.  We must dissect challenges in partnership with others. We must be hungry to collaborate and work with others.

Simply put, in order to find better solutions to apparently intractable problems we must:

1) Believe that the solution is out there.
2) Get into serious networking. Go to where there are lots of people (the Chamber of Commerce, your local branch of the Institute of Fundraising, conferences, talks, competitor AGMs - whatever).
3) Talk to lots and lots of people with intent to find a collaborator.  Spread your business cards like confetti. Look for complementary skills (or at least enthusiasm!).
4) Decide on your perfect partner agency and work out what you can offer them and what you want in exchange. Make the approach (see '2', above).

And if the challenge of bigger targets, more pressure and less money has caused you to begin to lose hope and to retreat into your own 'silo', just remember that the next person you are talking to (be they funder, customer, stakeholder or competitor) could be walking around with a hand axe in their back pocket which is better than yours. And that they would almost certainly be prepared to share it with you if you offer the right thing in return ....

3 techniques to transform your personal effectiveness (or ‘ways to avoid the runaway train’)

Let's be clear from the start - good time management is not about being able to work faster, harder or more efficiently. In fact, it is just the opposite.  The best time managers find that they operate in calmer environments, they have more free time and they often do NOT finish their 'to-do' lists.  Here are three powerful techniques used by the best time managers ...

1)   FOCUS ON RESULTS: Instead of being obsessed with getting your 'to-do' list finished - become focused instead on getting better results.  The Pareto Principle suggests that about 20% of what we do will deliver around 80% of the key results we need,  This means of course that the other 80% of what we do (or so) is relatively worthless!  Ever lost the will to live in a meeting? Ever wondered what happens to the report you've slaved over (did anything actually change as a result)?  When these things happen, you are probably involved in an activity that is not delivering value against your job purpose. The trick of good time management is to recognise which activities deliver real value - and which do not. Effective time managers can tell the difference - and ruthlessly avoid work that does not deliver.  They work hard, but avoid all unnecessary work.

2)     TAKE A BREAK: One implication of the Pareto Principle is that you should never take work home or work beyond the normal close of your regular office hours. You should never work in the evening or at weekends. ‘Impossible!’ you cry. ‘If I didn’t put in all of these extra hours, I’d never be able to cope’. And of course it does seem that way. However, the Pareto Principle is quite clear on this. You will do your best work in the 20% or so of your time when you are fresh, alert, and focused. For the rest of the day, you will get a diminishing scale of returns as you become more tired. Trying to finish work over the weekend simply means that you will be less effective on Monday morning, because you have not spent the time relaxing, recharging and refreshing yourself. Taking work home in the evening simply means that you will be tired tomorrow. And that means you’ll be less effective, make more mistakes and work more slowly. So you’ll end up taking work home again.  And so on and so forth. To break this cycle, simply stop. By using your spare time to recover from the challenges of a busy life; by recharging your batteries properly, you will find that you get more from your day. This simple reality, combined with the other techniques in this book designed to make you more effective will mean that burning the midnight oil becomes a thing of the past. Use your time to work on your goals and personal projects and your employer will see a marked improvement in the thing they pay you to produce - quality.

3)     TAKE ACTION: If you are twenty years old tomorrow, you may look forward, all things being equal, to another sixty years of life. So there’s loads of time to achieve everything you want, right? Hang on.  Sixty years sounds like an age. But ask any thirty year old how quick the ten years pass between twenty and thirty and they are likely to answer - ‘in a twinkling’. Ask a forty year old and they will tell you that time accelerates as you get older (Einstein missed that one). And anyway, it’s not actually sixty years you’ve got left. You can take off 33% of that for sleeping; about another 10% each for watching the telly and eating and 5% for grooming, sitting on the loo and bathing. I’m not even going to begin to calculate how much time you will waste waiting for colleagues to turn up late for meetings, trains to arrive and your children to tidy up after themselves. Actually I do know the answer to the last one - it’s forever. The future is travelling towards you at 3,600 second per hour. There’s less time left than you think!  So stop thinking about it!  Do it!

Here are just a few ways to avoid procrastination.

BANJO Technique: This acronym stands for Bang A Nasty Job Off. The idea is that when you arrive at work with an unpleasant task hanging over your head, you have a simple choice. Let it lie and get on with other stuff - in which case it will gnaw at the back of your mind. Or do it first. In which case you get it done, out of the way and you get to feel the relief that this brings. If you use the BANJO method, even the most unpleasant days just get better and better as they go on.

Cold Plunge: A whole range of work challenges, from difficult conversations with colleagues to the production of the annual report are sometimes best tackled just by diving in. Putting it off while still worrying about it can simply serve to blow the whole thing out of proportion.  Anticipation of the unpleasantness can be far worse than the real thing. So dive right in - more times than not you’ll find it’s not as bad as you think.

Avoid deactivation words and phrases: These are words and phrases which allow you to put off taking action, and include ‘tomorrow’, ‘later’, ‘next week’, ‘when I’m ready’, ‘some other time’. More often than not they really mean ‘never’. If it really needs doing, do it now!

Take action: We can plan, think, ponder, reflect and learn until the cows come home - but unless it is followed up with action, nothing will change. This ability to take daily action, and to persevere is recognised as an important attribute in the search for success by even the most brilliant minds. Thomas Edison undertook more than 50,000 experiments to perfect the storage cell battery. He is reputed to have argued that none of the failed experiments were really failures, because each one brought him a step closer to finding the correct solution!

Get the habit: Taking action is a habit. It is a frame of mind. The more actions you take, the more likely you are to take successful action. Get into the habit now. Think about something you plan to do but haven’t done yet. Put down this article, and take that action, now!

In summary – focus on results not activities; look after yourself and keep your batteries charged; and get stuck in!  Remember the words of Will Rogers: ‘Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.’

Spot the Psycho!

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Do you have a psychopath in your midst? Forget dressing up in old lady’s clothing and hanging around shower cubicles - the office psychopath is not necessarily a danger to your life or limb. However, the selfish, manipulative, intimidating and calculating behaviour demonstrated by those who exhibit antisocial personality disorder can be severely injurious to staff morale, mental well-being and productivity.

And it is more common than you might think. Studies suggest that between 1% and 3% of the population have this disorder. That means at least some of you will either have one in your team at the moment, or will have at some point in the future.

The office ‘psycho’ will be driven entirely by self-interest with an inability to be

moved by the negative implications of their actions for others. Specifically they might display a lack of conscience, little empathy, questionable loyalty, whilst breezing about in an enviably guilt free environment. Worse, their dissembling and charm can make it difficult to spot them until they are well established. Short of investing in a padded cell, a straitjacket and a variety of sedative narcotics (try getting those budget items past the trustees!) what can you do?

How to spot the ‘psycho’ in your team and what to do about it

Frankly, short of going back to school to retrain as a psychiatrist and buying a

white coat, your options are limited - but working on the basis that forearmed is forewarned - we’d suggest the following…

First, learn to recognise psychopathic behaviour. What does it look like? Well,

people who lose their temper inexplicably, lie and manipulate, nip to the gym and claim to have been at an important meeting or take credit for others’ work may be in the one percent! Of course they may just be jerks - but that’s another subject for another day!

Psychopaths fall into four types:

A. ANGRY SHOUTY MAN, Typically male, this personality type is likely to fly into frequent rages with little or no provocation.

B. CHARM SCHOOL GRADUATE, This type is likely to employ great charm and persuasiveness as they manipulate and lie.

C. COLD FISH, Distant and cold, don’t feel genuine emotions, unresponsive to punishment. If their antisocial behaviour is checked, it is by self interest rather than concern for the consequences to others.

D. ROLLER COASTER RIDER, Stress addicts who can demonstrate high levels of anxiety. Compulsive risk takers who can’t resist big risks.

Key behaviours

Look out for the following behaviour sets - it might mean that you are dealing with a psychopath.

v They are ‘know it alls’, never wrong, seeming expert on whatever is being

discussed.

v They are often superficial, charming, glib and amusing.

v They may paint themselves as heroes of tall tales and anecdotes.

v They may be arrogant, superior, domineering braggarts.

v There is one rule for them and another for everyone else.

v They lie often and are unconcerned when a lie is detected

v They don’t care about the consequences of their actions for other people, but are very concerned for any negative impacts on themselves.

v They are cold, detached, untouched by the problems of others.

We should stress that you should look out for multiple and repeated instances of the above behaviours before you even begin to suspect that you are dealing with one of ‘the three percent’.

What should you do - tactics for survival:

It is hard to deal with people such as those described above, but here are a few tips.

1. Always take up references, and if in doubt, probe the referee to get to the truth.

2. Don’t attempt to reason with your suspected psycho - they are not reasonable.

3. Establish a power base, and use it. Build alliances with other powerful people in the organisation.

4. Do not say ‘you are a psycho - I’ve read all about people like you’. This will cut no ice with them if they are a psychopath - and leave you open to disciplinary action if they are not!

5. Do establish clear rules to govern their behaviour and put in place an

appropriate, gradually escalating series of negative consequences. Be consistent and strong.

6. Seek support from others. Why should this be just your problem?

P.S. It could be you! Remember to include yourself in the ‘how to spot a psycho’ audit. If so, I’m not going to try to reason with you - but I would suggest that your undoubted intelligence should tell you that your self-interest would be best served in the long term by being nice to other people!

Managing Inadequate Performance

As a supervisor it is your job to improve performance – but sometimes the message doesn’t seem to get through. When an employee is repeatedly late, or delivers work of a sub standard nature – try the following programme:

Define and communicate what acceptable performance is

You have more experience than the person you are supervising. Spell out to them
what your expectations are. Give concrete examples and avoid general exhortations to ‘do better’ or ‘improve performance’.

Switch on your 'below par' radar
Manage by walking around. Ask people about their work.
When you spot something that is not good enough, bring it up as soon as
possible.

It is difficult to confront inadequate performance. 

So try this sequence:
1) Confront the worker privately – not in front of others. A defensive response is
much less likely.

2) Manage your own emotions. Don’t choose a time when you are annoyed or angry.
Wait until you feel calmer.
3) Take ‘you are wrong’ out of the equation. Discussion need not be a dressing down
or an argument. It should be a problem solving session where two rationale
individuals try to improve the situation. Approach the session with this firmly in
mind.
4) Do not get involved in small talk. Get to the point quickly. This is a time to be
businesslike.
5) Do not apologise. You shouldn’t say things like ‘I’m sorry to have to mention this
but’. Just say that you have noticed something and you need to find a way for this
to change.
6) Look for underlying factors. There may be a very good reason why the employee
is under performing. Don’t make assumptions.
7) Try to offer the resources the employee needs. Is the underperformance caused
by a lack of proper tools to get the job done, not enough time, physical ailments,
stress, family problems, or simply a talented employee in an under demanding role.

Set improvement goals
Explicitly state the level of performance required. Make them SMART.

Establish an action plan
People may not change unless you keep the pressure on. So produce an action plan which considers:
 

*    Closer supervision
*    Job reassignment
*    Additional training
*    Mentoring
*    More stimulating work
*    Lower performance standards until an ‘upskilling’ has taken place
*    Whatever else seems appropriate

Assertiveness At Work

There are several models that describe assertiveness and how to develop it, but
amongst the best thinking comes from Ken and Kate Back, who've specialised in this
area of human behaviour for over 20 years. In their book "Assertiveness at Work - a
practical guide to handling awkward situations", they describe what assertiveness is, and
how to develop it. Their concepts are simple and make sense, and have helped many
people to become more effective in their dealings with others.

DEFINING ASSERTIVENESS
Assertiveness lies in the middle of a continuum of behaviour towards others, that
the Backs defined in terms of how we recognise the rights of the two parties involved.

Aggressive: You exert your right to have ideas and opinions at the expense of the
other person's rights. In fact you behave as if the other person's rights
don't matter.

Assertive: You exert your rights freely and clearly, but at the same recognise the
other person's rights to be heard, to have pride in what they do, etc.

Non-Assertive:  You take too much account of the other person's rights, to the extent
that you forego some or all of your rights to express ideas or influence events.

To illustrate the three types of behaviour, they quote a simple example of a
manager spotting some minor errors in the written work of a subordinate. The manager
goes to the individual and says:

Aggressive
"I don't know how you've got the nerve to give me this sort of stuff
for signing. It's full of mistakes."
Assertive
"Jane, I'd like you to re-do this document as there are several mistakes
in it."
Non-Assertive
"I know it's, er .... probably my fault in .... not writing very clearly, but
is there, um .... any chance at all you could find a spare minute to um
.... just change one of two small things on this letter for me?"

Or you find an excuse not to take the document back at all…

Clearly the desired behaviour is to be assertive, and the book goes on to describe
in detail how you can develop assertiveness in a range of situations. To frame that
development, they put forward the idea of Inner Dialogues: those conversations we have
with ourselves before we interact with someone else. Sometimes these Inner Dialogues
are subconscious, but if you become more aware of them, you can manage them and
become more effective in your dealings with others.
To go back to the example above, the inner dialogues might be:

Aggressive
"If people produce rubbish, I have every right to tell them so"
"She obviously doesn't care. That's typical of young people today."
"This reflects badly on me, and I won't stand for it."
Assertive
"This may be uncomfortable for us both, but we can handle it."
"She has the right to make mistakes, but also the responsibility to
correct them."
"I want her to know the effect her errors have on other people."
Non-Assertive
"I don't want to make a scene or upset our working relationship."
"I'm sure these are unintentional errors - I'll let it go this time."
"I know she's very busy, so I expect that's why these mistakes
happened."

By having your Inner Dialogue before you deal with the other person, you can
adjust your behaviour to be Assertive. You achieve this by turning your Faulty Inner
Dialogue (aggressive or non-assertive) into a Sound Inner Dialogue (assertive).
There's something for all of us in this model - it isn't just for tyrannical bosses or shrinking
wall-flowers! Effective assertive behaviour is an important building block for creating a
empowered, involving, learning organisation culture. You would do well to develop your
assertiveness before embarking on grander culture changes.
Many training organisations incorporate this thinking into their training courses on
Assertiveness or Personal Effectiveness, but if you want to understand Assertiveness
properly, Ken and Kate Back's original book is a great place to start.

Three cornerstones of creative thinking

Dr. Teresa Amabile, Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School describes the “Three Components of Creativity‟. Writing in the Harvard Business Review, she considers how, expertise, creative thinking skills and motivation are all required if creativity is to take place within structured organisations.

Component 1: Expertise

Expertise, in her model, is not just that connected to a person’s current post or

job. It also refers to all of the knowledge and experience that that person has gained in life. So a Chief Executive may also bring skills garnered from being a mother, a youth leader, or a hockey player.

Component 2: Creative Thinking

Amabile includes a number of elements in her description of creative thinking. For example she cites a ‘capacity to put existing ideas in new combinations’, ‘perseverance’, ‘the capacity for incubation’ and the combination of ‘knowledge from seemingly disparate fields’.

Component 3: Motivation

Motivation is the fuel that drives the vehicle provided by the two elements listed

above. All the expertise and ability to think creatively in the world will be useless, if the person is not motivated to put them to good use.  In most organisations, there is a wealth of talent, both visible and hidden among the staff and volunteers. The ability to think creatively can be learned or encouraged by reading books or blogs, or attending training courses. But nurturing a positive motivation to be creative among its people is the one element that most organizations leave out. And a car without fuel is going nowhere.

How to motivate creativity

There are three things a manager can do to build individual motivation to solve

problems.

1. Match people with the right task. If you play to people’s strengths you may

find that they begin to enjoy the challenge. It seems obvious, but when we want to deliver a presentation, how many times do we see the person with the strongest dread of presenting being chosen? If a piece has to be written for the community newsletter, do we choose the best communicator, or simply the person who is closest to the task, to prepare the copy? If we do not put conscious effort into the matching process, then mismatches are inevitable. And then of course, we will have people who are not enthusiastic and engaged, far less passionate, about their task.

2. Give people freedom to act. A manager may give team members a clear brief, or target. But if the manager then constrains their freedom to act in order to retain control over how something is to be achieved, then they will limit the team’s ability to provide creative solutions. So delegate responsibility for the results, as well as the task in hand. Ask people to solve the problem or to come back to you with alternative solutions, but not with problems. Hand over ownership of the problem. Light the blue touch paper of your peoples‟ creativity and then stand back.

3. Give people time: People need time to be creative. They need strategic time.

In other words a long period of time in which to consider, gestate, ponder and wait for their subconscious brain or intuition to kick in. You don’t necessarily get creativity by demanding results yesterday. They also need tactical time. This is time knitted into the fabric of a day to brainstorm or dream. So create a long enough timeline, but also encourage people to schedule in quite time into their daily schedules. Encourage them to clear their decks of urgent but not necessarily important tasks and “have a meeting with their creativity‟.

The past, present and future of corporate philanthropy

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Background

Business investment in the community is not a new phenomenon. In the nineteenth century William Hesketh Lever raised money for a lifeboat - ‘Sunlight No. 1’. This was gifted to the RNLI after the money to pay for it was raised as part of a Sunlight Soap competition in 1887. Leaders from the fields of commerce and industry, such as the Cadbury and Rowntree families also pioneered business giving. In the USA Andrew Carnegie set about giving away his vast fortune to endow civic buildings, libraries and museums.  Even then there was a mix of motivation. As Tony Elischer tells us in ‘Corporate Fundraising’ (CAF/ICFM - Ed Valerie Morton) ‘Even in these early times, the motivation behind company support was complex and sophisticated, ranging from the purely philanthropic, through ambitious desire for self promotion and social aggrandisement, to recognition of mutually commercial self interest.” This range of motivation still exists today. Indeed it, and the techniques employed to achieve it have increased in sophistication, breadth and scope.

How does corporate funding work?

In ‘Cause Related Marketing’ (Butterworth Heineman 1999) Sue Adkins describes a ‘continuum’ with ‘philanthropy’ at one end and ‘business basics’ at the other. In the ultra competitive world of the business person, it is easier to justify spending money on those relationships with community groups that are at the 'business end' of the spectrum - in other words that deliver some sort of business benefit.  Author Sue Adkins describes Cause Related Marketing as ‘ a commercial activity by which businesses and charities or causes form a partnership with each other to market an image, product or service for mutual benefit’.

Specifically, what can businesses offer you?

Businesses can support you in a number of ways:

· with cash: Depending on the nature of the relationship, the sums can be very small or very large.

· with expertise: When a small dyslexia charity needed a new brochure, it was printed and designed free of charge by a local printer.

· with people: When the Gateshead Hilton experienced an unexpected delay in opening in 2003, the company were left with around 50 employees, already under contract, but with nothing to do. They asked Gateshead Council if they could use any people on a temporary basis to accomplish specific goals. Similarly, the City Centre Manager of Newcastle City Council was, in the late 90’s, a seconded employee of Barclays Bank.

Cash or ‘in kind’

Most of the resource that companies put into the community is not in the form

of cash at all. The Directory of Social Change recently calculated the balance between cash donation and other forms of ‘community contribution’ (goods, services, etc) and found this to be the case with regard to almost every major corporate donor.

 

What do they want from you?

In a ‘Business in the Community’ Corporate Survey, Chief Exec’s, Marketing and Community Affairs Directors were asked what they thought could be achieved by a relationship with community organisations. The results were:

Enhance reputation: 75%

Motivate employees: 54%

Achieve good PR: 51%

Brand awareness: 44%

Develop loyalty: 39%

Increase sales: 34%

Deflect bad PR: 14%

Trial product/service: 6%

So if your pitch puts the emphasis on ‘enhancing reputation’ or ‘motivating employees’ then they are already likely to believe you can deliver!

Your offer may be motivational: Especially at a time of recession, companies are interested in joint promotions or fun events involving their staff.

Your value may be delivered by association: A relationship with a local organisation can demonstrate to a variety of stakeholders - from local authorities, to customers to staff, that a business is committed to a specific community.

You may allow access to key groups: Companies may be interested in reaching out to the people you can reach. For example when a local supermarket launched an Asian Food line, it supported the Leicester Mela.

What if you have no ‘features’ to offer

It is still possible to build a relationship with a business and get them to support you. One way to do this is to help them build a relationship with someone else...

Many charities offer ‘corporate clubs’. Companies join and are afforded various benefits. Often they don’t really care a lot about what the organising charity does - but they like to be in the club because it helps them build other valuable business relationships.

For example the Royal Shakespeare Company raised money for its Globe Theatre in

London by allowing sponsors to join their corporate club. The club had a number of different levels, with increasing benefits, dependent on the size of the member’s contribution. The five status levels were:

1) The Lord Chamberlain’s Men

2) Master of the Revels

3) Countess of Pembroke’s Circle

4) The Patrons

5) The Nobles

Barrow in Furness Council has set up an Arts Club to raise money from local businesses for its Leisure Department. The list below shows the three levels with examples of the kinds of company who have joined:

1) Level Member example Membership Cost

2) Gold British Gas £3,000

3) Silver Kimberley Clark £2,000

4) Bronze Furness Plastics £1,000

In 1997 this raised around £65,000 of ‘free’ income to be spent on arts activities. In return for their money, member organisations were invited to a black tie dinner. Gold members got a better seat and preferential treatment over Silver - who in turn got a slightly better deal than the Bronze members.

 So what of the future?

It might seem logical that businesses will withdraw from community involvement when times are hard.  But in fact the opposite may be true.  As companies find that they need to become more competitive, one way they can do this is through the added value that Corporate Social Responsibility offers.  A tough economic environment means that they have problems - and you may be able to help them solve those problems - the simplest example being by helping to motivate staff with team building challenges, fundraising events and so on. 

What should your proposal look like?

It of course depends on the company - and who you represent.  But if there are constant, unchanging principles, they are these:

1.  Start small - Take your time building the relationship - no one gets married after a first date!  

2.  Go in 'warm' (if you can) rather than 'cold'.  In other words use contacts to find clients, customers or suppliers of the business to introduce you.

3.  Find out what they are most likley to want from the relationship.  Motivated staff is a good place to start.

4.  Focus on companies with which you share some territory (the same neighbourhood, the same customers, the same issues, similar values, etc)

5. Don't ask for money - find creative ways to use their muscle, expertise, contacts or skills to save you money or deliver services and outcomes that you would otherwise have to pay for. 

Keep Smiling!

Mark