The Law of Attraction - Is it Growing Your Business?

Over the years I have noticed two trains of thought on the issue of ‘giving’, in the business community, those for it and those against it. ‘Giving’ of your time and services for free is definitely on the increase and in my opinion a great deal of it has to do with the digital world we are in. With growing numbers of open source platforms and business collaborations more and more people are learning what it really means to ‘give’. They are discovering something wonderful – the more you give, the more it comes back to you in so many different ways. This is what’s known as ‘The Law of Attraction’.

So are you in the ‘old camp’ (never give anything away for free), the ‘new camp’ (giving and collaborating regularly) or do you have a foot in both camps right now?

I know businesses and organisations that see it as a weakness in business to give anything away for free. Many of them use hard sell techniques believing this is the only way to grow a business. This viewpoint makes me wonder if their business is actually growing or stagnating. Because they never give, they have no concept of the ‘Law of Attraction’ and its’ amazing effect.

What I now see in the business world is a growing number of ‘givers’ who prefer to do business with other ‘givers’. This was highlighted for me recently. When I landed this job as The Business Incubator Manager at The University of South Wales I had been self-employed for almost 30 years. It was hard for me to tell all my network of business friends that I had ‘jumped camp’. Silly as it sounds, I felt like a traitor!

What I had forgotten was that I was networking with ‘givers’. They were all thrilled to hear my good news and overwhelmed me with their offers of help for the graduate start-up businesses I would be supporting at The Business Loft. They even offered help knowing that they are not allowed to ‘sell their services’ to the start-up businesses they are mentoring.

The true test of a ‘giver’ is not in the offer of help but in the action they take. 

Just recently, when I was launching a new pilot programme at The Business Loft – Hot Desk Mentoring – I emailed all 67 of my networking friends who had offered their services as volunteer mentors for the start-up businesses. To my amazement the response from these wonderful ‘givers’ was so instantaneous that within 48 hours my Hot Desk Mentoring Programme was fully  booked until Christmas! Now I have a waiting list of wonderful people who want to be Hot Desk Mentors next year.

So thank you to all the wonderful ‘givers’ in my life who make so much more possible for everyone.