As a personal business coach if you were to ask me about the long term keys to success, satisfaction and happiness I would tell you that it all of them are built on a foundation of good relationships.  Quite simply, in coaching success over many years, I can assure you that good relationships are essential for a good business and a good life.

Very often one of the first areas of business relationship management has to do with customers.  Businesses will look at their CRM (customer relations management) strategy.  This may include customer loyalty programs, customer service programs, customer retention programs and ongoing customer relationship marketing to name a few. 

Keys To Success:  Relationships Of The Small Business Owner

These are important.  But the focus here is going to be on the relationships of the small business owner.  After all, small business success does not happen without good relationships.

You may do the best success planning but without the right relationships you will fail.  You may have a can’t miss business startup plan or marketing business plan that will take you down the road to success.  Once again, without good relationships you can easily be taken off your road to success. 

So, how do you go about having as many good relationships as possible?  The first thing is to take a look at all your primary relationships.  Primary relationships are those where you have interaction with them on a regular basis.  Make a list.  These are the foundation for your business and life as it is now. 

Keys To Success:  It’s The Quality Of Your Relationships

Remember business success and small business growth are not about the total number of your relationships.  It is about the quality.  And, it is about the time you invest in each.  As a self-employed business owner you need to be aware of the quality and the time you spend with your primary relationships. 

Here’s the next step.  Next to each person’s name write down how you see the relationship.  Is it nice?  Is it nasty?  Is it necessary?  Or, is it a combination?  For example you could have a relationship that is necessary but also nasty. 

Now that you have determined what you have in your relationships ask yourself the following question.  What are these relationships doing to me?  What do they have me becoming? 

In business performance coaching knowing what your relationships are doing to you and what they have you becoming very often is startling.  Most people don’t take the few minutes I am asking you to take here to analyze their relationships. 

Very often entrepreneurs and solo professionals become focused on their work and what they feel they need to accomplish that they don’t realize the true impact their relationships are having on their businesses and lives. 

Keys To Success:  Know What Your Relationships Are Doing To You

So, analyze your relationships.  Get a true picture of what they are doing to you.  Most of us can readily tell what a relationship is doing for us.  That’s easy.  What it is doing to us demands some more thought and looking in the mirror at ourselves. 

In my Business Keys To Success membership course at Business Keys To Success.com I offer many small business tips.  But the most important small business tips, and for that matter, life tips have to do with relationships.  There are three sections devoted exclusively to taking the relationships you have and making them work for you. 

Also featured in The Business Keys To Success membership course are ways to increase motivation, recognize failure and what to do about it, problem solving, momentum and earning more money.  You will learn and discover some of the keys to success that you won’t learn in school.  Get on your road to success.  Start your personal development training and go to http://www.businesskeystosuccess.comand grab your copy now.

After all, whether you are starting your own business or running a small business your success will be only as great as your ability to depend upon the right people.  Creating your own business is one thing.  Owning your own business and running it is another.  The right relationships will go a long way in determining your outcome. 

There are many keys to success.  Great relationships are one of the keys.  Once you understand that the power and influence of your associations is an awesome power that affects every area of your business and life, then the next step is to take action to make it the best it can be. 

In my next post I will give you some steps to further sort your relationships and establish your priorities to make this area the best it can be.  For now determine how your relationships fit into the nice, nasty and necessary model. 

There are many keys to success but recognizing the power and influence of our associations and knowing what to do are critical to moving forward to having the business success and small business growth you desire.