Business Wisdom: Reconnecting With Old Clients, Staff and Friends
Inspiration, Wednesday Wisdom, Motivation for Women Entrepreneurs, Women in Business, Female Athletes
Unless we have children or grandchildren in school, we forget another season of their lives have ended. They will never sit in the same classroom again, walk the locker-lined halls with the same classmates or study with the same teachers once they advance to a higher grade. I remember vividly receiving my yellow report card from grade school to see if I passed and to compare next year’s teacher’s name with my closest friends to see if we were going to be in the same classroom next year.
As I skipped home from school, because I lived across from my elementary school, I was excited for summer vacations, relaxed schedules and relief from homework. I didn’t miss my friends because we grew up on a lake, in a close community, where I could bike to my friends’ houses, swim with them lakeside or ride in our sail and motor boats all summer long. I didn’t have to give up seeing them just because school ended and summer arrived.
An unknown author said, “Sometimes people come into your life for a moment, a day, or a lifetime. It matters not the time they spend with you but how they impacted your life in that time.” Last week as business women joined me at the “Party in the Garden,” I was thrilled to see women from my past as leader of WBOC in Syracuse and professional friends from SUNY Oswego. I also hugged women who came to the Women’s March on Washington with me and members I hadn’t seen in awhile. It was special having some time with them to reminisce and catch up on their news.
Women entrepreneurs are often so forward-focused in business, they forget connections from the past. We are quickly on to the next new customer, the bright new sales deal or claiming a bigger share of the current market that we forget to look back at the people we shared special business times with once in our lives. If they live in our region, there isn’t a reason to forget them. Just like our elementary school selves, we can be excited for new friends in new times while still holding on to old ones. It makes the tapestry of our relationships more brilliant.
Today’s Wednesday Wisdom during this first full week of the summer season is to motivate you to think of past clients, friends, associates, interns or staff who use to be a large part of your life. Once you see their faces and remember their names, make a list and reach out to a new person once a week to see if you can reconnect over refreshing lemonade, a hot latte or salad. You might find the one time visit is enough or you might rekindle a relationship bringing more business or fun into your future. If you don’t know where to start, consider the authentic relationships that were natural and easy but time just got in the way. Reach out to them first and set a ‘play date’ before September arrives.
We might not be ten year old girls rejoicing class is over but we are still joyful girls inside who cherish having friends – both new and old.
Women TIES 