Relationships are your number one asset in business. Business owners are accustomed to evaluating their assets in the format of dollars in and dollars out and the reality is that relationships, those with your employees, vendors, customers, business partners etc are challenging to quantify.

Your number one asset is challenging to quantify which is a major opportunity as well as a challenge. Viewing your business through a new lens can help. What if you looked at your business as a web of relationships?

Strengthen your relationships and you strengthen your business.

When you’re acquiring new customers you’re just starting new relationships and in order to generate customer retention and referrals you’re strengthening your current relationships. People are looking for Stability and Consistency + Variety and Something Different + A Feeling of Importance + Personal Connection + Value in Comparison with Other Similar Options + the Feeling of Trust.

A strong web of relationships automatically grows itself because people naturally reciprocate when their needs are being met in a relationship. Their needs are of the fundamentals to all relationships combined with the personal expectations that they bring to the context that you work with them in. In order to protect and grow your relationships you must learn to understand what level each person values these building blocks at and what their expectations are for you within the context of your relationship.