Doing chores is one of the things no one likes to do and therefore they very rarely do it. This means if you decide right here and now that you will do your business chores, you will be ahead of 80% of your competition.

What do we mean by a business chore? A business chore is made up of many items. Here are some that you can put into your schedule and if you do them on a regular basis, you will get that feeling of satisfaction that comes with a good day of business just from following up:

• Take a handful of the cards you collected from the last networking event (or trade show) you attended and put them into your database. You can use Outlook or other CRM type software to do this. The key here is that you create a category for the event. For example, if you attended a Chamber of Commerce networking event on July 20, you would create a category Chamber Events (you may also want to put the year). When you enter the contact information, you will then select Chamber Events as the category.
  
  Did you know that people attending Chamber networking events only follow up 1% of the time? Here is your chance to put in the contact information and then...
  
• Decide what method you want to use to follow up with the contacts you just entered. If you want to send an email, I would suggest you have several drafts you can choose from and then customize it for that particular individual (remember we do business with individuals and not organizations). If you create your emails in Word or other word processing program ahead of you can prepare several versions for different scenarios. I suggest you create at least 5 different ones. Then all you need to do is pick the text, fill in the blanks, and send the email. What could be easier?
  
  Email is certainly the easiest method of connection but not all email gets through because of spam blockers or the recipient does not recognize your name and trashes it before it is opened. You must look to using a number of connection methods including using the telephone.
  

• Use the contact information you have just entered to follow up your email with a phone call to set up a time to meet on the phone. The key here is that you are booking 15 to 20 minutes of phone time to discuss potential. You are not selling your products with this first phone call. Most often you will end up leaving a quick message and will recycle the redial until the next day. Don't waste your time dialing the same person several times in one day.
  
• Even though you may have sent an email and made a quick phone call, you follow up chores for the day are not complete. If you think there may be business you can do with the prospect, you next chores is to send a card, personally addressed and written with envelope and stamp. Sound tedious? Well it does not have to be, I found a system that works beautifully! I use a program that does all of this for me. If you want to try it out go to www.SendOutCards.com/11666 I have setup a guest account for you to play with (you can send out 1 or 2 cards on my nickel). The id and password to get into the account is midnight. The results I have obtained from sending out these cards has been overwhelming. Everyone I sent a follow up card to has responded - that is 100%. Amazing!

In summary there are three chores you need to put into your calendar for the first thing each morning. You should do these chores everyday to achieve maximum results
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• First, enter new contact information into your Outlook or CRM program.
  
• Second, send an email to follow up.
  
• Third, make a quick phone call to set up a telephone meeting.
  
• Fourth, send a personal card in the mail (see the item above to get access to instant cards). If you can do these four chores everyday, your business will blossom.

Bette Daoust, Ph.D.

Bette Daoust, Ph.D., has spent 25 years in various technical and business leadership roles. Dr. Daoust brings to the table a successful executive career combining many years working with government, non-profit and for profit organizations in a broad variety of industries. Her positions have included executive, financial, marketing, sales, and service management. She has worked with such companies as Peet?s Coffee & Tea, Mobile BIS, Cisco, Accenture and Avaya in the field of knowledge management.