3) GUARANTEE: In today's world of "fast buck" rip-off artist, especially on internet, people are hesitant to buy anything without a guarantee. If you want to make sales, make a guarantee, but don't over do it. Don't make such a ridiculous guarantee, that can't be believed or will cost you so much that your profit margin takes a nose dive.

When deciding what your Niche will be, first decide how it will attract and benefit your customers, and how you will divert them from patronizing your competitor for first time or repeated sales. For example, your Niche may also be providing more information and services in your area than anyone else in market.

In closing, no matter what your Niche, you will always find someone else in same market. Always study your competitors. Approch them (their site) as you would if you were really a prospective customer looking for their product. Would you be more likely to buy from them or from you. Why? Why Not? These are points that you should be constantly examining, researching and striving to make better.

I started to race for highway as I was seriously late. I was THE speaker at meeting, but my eyes were still swollen and teary. I reached over to grab a tissue from my purse. No purse. Oh boy. For first time in my life, I started to think about expression, "driving without a license." What exactly does that mean, anyway? You don't have a license at all, or you have one, but not on you? Hmm.

No purse also means no money, no plastic, no checks, no breakfast, no coffee. Amazingly, I arrived at restaurant only ten minutes late, but frazzled beyond belief. I was still thinking about Bark, wondering if she was okay. My hair looked like I had stuck my finger in a light socket. My eyes were practically swollen shut, and, as I got out of my car, I slipped on black ice, thus tearing a hole in my panty hose and bleeding from one knee. As I picked myself up I saw that in my haste, I had put on one black shoe and one blue shoe. At this point, I was pretty sure I should have stayed in bed.

I entered restaurant, and as I took my seat, I saw waitress approach with a pot of coffee. Knowing that I had no money on me, I covered coffee cup with my hand as a signal not to fill cup. My timing was off, however, and she proceeded to pour scalding coffee on my hand.

I had only been up for two hours and already a whole multitude of disasters had befallen me. Instead of my prepared speech on networking, I decided to stand up and tell my story to group. As I looked out on faces, I realized how grateful I was that these people were part of my network. I knew each one of them. We had all done business together. We had exchanged leads. We had become friends. I didn't have to explain to them that I'm usually much better put together. They knew that. Instead of frowning upon my shortcomings that morning, each person fought over who would buy my breakfast AND we had a good laugh.

It was a fairly new group, started just about a month before. As I stood before them, I realized we had reached a turning point. What had, only a short time before, been a roomful of strangers, had become a team, a network of people who genuinely cared about one another. We had helped each others businesses grow. We were working hard at bringing in referrals for one another. Everyone there that morning was pulling together to help me in my hour of need, and that is truly essence of networking. You see, networking is not only a contact sport; it is a team sport. Instead of taking care of just yourself, take care of people on your team. They, in turn, will take care of you. Even on a bad hair day.