Practical Application

Amy Adams learned early on in her career that networking was one of the most effective ways to find new clients. To help that process along, she joined the local Chamber of Commerce and began rubbing elbows with local business owners. One of the business owners she met was Sally, who owned a very popular chain of car washes.

One day at one of the Chamber of Commerce’s “meet and greets,” Sally began asking Amy for some informal advice about selling a portion of her car washes to investors in order to raise additional funds to build even more car washes. Naturally, Amy was more than excited to have such a successful businessperson turn to her for advice.

Amy and Sally drew out some potential numbers on a cocktail napkin, coming to the conclusion that Sally would need approximately 50 investors to invest $50,000. Amy didn’t think that would be a stretch, based on the fact that she had dozens of clients with at least that much cash in their accounts and due to the fact that Sally was a well-known and respected business person.

Amy went back to her office, excited to share the news about this potential relationship with her sales manager. To her surprise, she was greeted with a panicked look and some hurried questions about whether or not she had actually solicited anyone to invest yet. Not sure of why her sales manager wasn’t doing cartwheels over this new potential opportunity, Amy asked him to explain his lack of enthusiasm. Her manager went on to tell her that a