Manny Medina: The time is right for tech fund, major conference

 Last year Manny Medina sold Terremark, the company he founded, for more than $2 billion, then slipped beneath the radar. Now he’s back on the Miami business scene.

Here are some excerpts from his recent Q&A with Business Editor Jane Wooldridge about his plans for a technology fund and a major tech conference planned for early 2014. You can read his full Q&A here. (Photo of Manny Medina by Miami Herald Staff)

 Q:  You’ve started a fund for investing in tech companies. What kinds of companies are you looking at?

 A. These are truly exciting times in the information technology industry. The revolution of moving from the era of “Industrialized IT” (owning your own hardware, etc.) to the new era of “Agile IT” (cloud computing, mobile, etc.) is creating fantastic opportunities. I have launched Medina Capital Partners in order to invest in companies in this field. 

 We are not geared for startups. We are looking for established companies with a unique business model or technology that we can help with capital and strategy. Besides capital, our vast experience in Terremark working across international borders, product lines, enterprises and government, could be very helpful for the right company at the right stage.

 Q: In your view, what does it take for a tech company to be successful today, and why aren’t you finding more investment-worthy companies in South Florida?

 A. I believe that for a technology company to succeed today, it must have a carefully thought-out business plan with enough flexibility to adjust along the way, but it needs to have a road map. Just because you have a “cool idea” does not mean you will be able to bring it to a successful conclusion. We have seen numerous technology companies fail because they have not spent enough time planning before the launch.

Another major cause of failure is grossly underestimating their capital requirements. Unfortunately, South Florida does not have enough of a tech critical mass at this time. Therefore, we have to spend our time in Silicon Valley, Virginia and the Northeast Corridor. However, we hope to help change that in the future.

Q: You’re working with local leaders to initiate a not-for-profit Tech Conference of the Americas in Miami. When will it happen? Can you tell us what you’ve got in mind? How do you think it will help the region?

 A. As I attended technology conferences in San Francisco, Las Vegas, New York, etc., I was always amazed how any one of them would attract from 100,000 to 250,000 participants. Some conferences actually transform the entire city.

I began to ask why we couldn’t do this in South Florida. The answer was always that we could not compete with Silicon Valley, the Research Triangle, etc. My view is that we do not need to compete, we need to use our number one asset — that we are the undisputed capital of Latin America for everything except technology. Therefore, why not launch a Tech Conference in South Florida to serve as the technology bridge between Latin America and the rest of the world?

Circumstances today create the perfect storm for us to do this. The economic meltdown in Europe and the slowdown in North America are making Latin America substantially more attractive for technology companies. At the same time, Latin American enterprises and governments have an insatiable appetite for the transfer of this new technology.

The conference has to have three main attributes: It needs to be substantive. In other words, tackle real issues facing the industry today like cloud computing, cyber security, big data, analytics, etc.; it needs to be a great networking event; and lastly, it must be fun. I could not think of a better venue than South Florida.

If we think of Art Basel’s impact in our community, I am convinced that making South Florida the Tech Capital of Latin America could have as big if not a bigger impact. The idea has been overwhelmingly embraced by local leaders. We have already secured a few hundred thousand dollars of funding. The goal is to have the first annual conference in the Spring of 2014. Over the next few months, we will be reaching out to the broader community to invite everybody to join us and help make this annual conference a major success for our community.

 Read the full interview here, which includes Manny Medina's thoughts on his new foundation, what he might have done differently in building Terremark, and the best advice he ever received.

 

Is Tumblr worth the time for your small business?

 By Tasha Cunningham

 Have you heard about Tumblr? This popular blogging platform boasts roughly 60 million users and has gotten the attention of major brands like Coca-Cola, Huffington Post, Comedy Central and National Public Radio (NPR). But for a business small business owner, the notion of adding yet another social engagement platform to your marketing mix may seem daunting.

 Will creating a presence on a blogging platform like Tumblr result in more customers? Are you looking at using Tumblr to generate revenue or simply to engage and inform potential customers? BizBytes has compiled a quick overview of Tumblr to help you decide.

 What is Tumblr?

Tumblr is essentially a blogging platform with a visual component that makes it easy to promote your products using pictures. It’s been around for about five years and is used by a number of major brands and organizations. Even President Obama has one.

 Why Tumblr Makes Blogging Easier

If you’ve already got a blog on your website, you may not want to invest the time in starting another one on Tumblr. But chances are the blog on your website doesn’t get you exposure to the nearly 60 million users that are on Tumblr. One option may be to replace your current website blog with a
Tumblr, which could actually be easier for you to maintain. It user-friendly, customizable in minutes and comes with a mobile app that allows you to update your Tumblr on the fly. The platform also offers many free, ready-made themes that make your Tumblr look less like a blog and more like a sleek version of your website. You can also easily integrate it with Facebook and Twitter. Tumblr
also makes it easy to get your posts noticed using a system that tags and filters content by category.

 Why Tumblr May Not be Right for Your Small Business

If you’re used to measuring your marketing success using analytics, Tumblr may not be right for you. Currently, there are no features on Tumblr that allow you to see how many people are interacting with your content using a dashboard. So it makes it hard to get accurate stats. Another drawback of
Tumblr is its limited comment functionality. Currently, you need a third-party app to comment on an individual post, which is not the case with platforms like Facebook.

 How to Make the Most of Tumblr: 

Use an engaging design. How you design your Tumblr is important. There are free template themes, but you can also customize the look. Check out these Tumblr pages to see how major brands do it.

 Coca-Cola: http://coca-cola.tumblr.com/

 President Obama: http://barackobama.tumblr.com/

 Comedy Central: http://comedycentral.tumblr.com/

 National Public Radio: http://npr.tumblr.com/

 

Get  a custom URL. It’s important to create a custom URL for your Tumblr  blog. URLs are usually formatted like this – yourbusinessname.tumblr.com.

 

Give  your Tumblr a personality. If you create a Tumblr, let your followers and potential customers know who is in charge of it. Designate someone at your company to be the “curator”, the person responsible for posting  content and maintaining the blog. It gives your Tumblr a personal touch
and gives customers direct access to your brand.

Are you using Tumblr in your small business? How has it helped you?

Want to learn more about blogging with Tumblr? Download the free BizBytes guide, Tumblr 101 for Small Business at www.BizBytes101.com.

Big week coming up for tech industry forecasts

By Tom Hudson of Nightly Business Report

One business that has been resilient to the tepid economy has been technology.

Innovation, productivity and competition have helped drive spending on technology. But next week we may start seeing the limits of the appetite for the latest in high tech.

More than the newest iPhone or tablet, technology spending is expected to surpass more than $3.5 trillion this year, according to the research firm Gartner.

While that’s 3 percent stronger than this year, the forecast is described merely as stable. A year ago companies and consumers dug into their pockets for tech. Global technology spending jumped 7.9 percent in 2011.

But with the economy in the United States sputtering, more than a half-dozen countries in Europe falling into recession and growth in China cooling off, spending on technology is coming under pressure.

Already, semiconductor maker Advanced Micro Devices has reduced its financial forecast, singling out weaker sales in China and Europe as the main culprits.

In the coming week, investors will hear from software giant Microsoft, global semiconductor powerhouses Intel and Qualcomm and technology services colossal IBM. This quartet covers much of the technology landscape from software and smartphones to cloud computing and computer chips.

What they are experiencing will be a window into the confidence of both consumers and corporations worldwide.

 Tom Hudson is anchor and managing editor of Nightly Business Report, produced by NBR Worldwide and distributed nationally by American Public Television. In South Florida, the show is broadcast at 7 p.m. weekdays on Channel 2. Follow him on Twitter, @HudsonNBR.

 

 

Starting a business -- from 6 who've been there, conquered that

As the South Florida startup community matures, more and more opportunities pop up every week to network and learn from the experiences of successful entrepreneurs. One such event this week that attracted a standing-room-only audience was Part I of the Entrepreneur Education Series hosted by the Miami-Dade Chamber's Young Professionals Network and Florida International University's Pino Global Entrepeneurship Center.

YPN was started in 2007 after an FIU study came out about the area's Brain Drain, the organizers told me. If we can give our young professionals the education, mentorship and connections they need, as well as the opportunities to engage in the community, there's a better chance they will stay in the area and become leaders that end up mentoring the next generation. Makes a lot of sense. The organization, which accepts professionals 40 and under,  has more than 125 dues paying members and hundreds more on its email list.

In a large conference room at the UM Life Science Building, YPN and the Pino Center assembled an awesome panel that included Felecia Hatcher, founder of Feverish Ice Cream (and social media extraordinaire); Joshua Blank, president of MiamiSeedlings incubator; Bob Arnold, attorney with Victory Law Group; Ana Cela Harris, founder of Cela Advisors; Melissa Krinzman, managing director of Venture Architects; and Marco Scanu, executive coach with 345 Group.

I heard advice on business plans, finding funding sources, financials, using community resources, finding  mentors and building a network, creating a company culture. Assembling a strong board of advisors is key. Some of the other advice given:

* The first question to ask is what problem are you solving? Frame your business around solving a problem for your potential customers. 

* You are your best sales person for your business. Sell your story.

* The most successful companes are partnerships, not single leaders. At the end of the day, you can have a B or C idea but if you don't have an A team you won't be successful.

* When presenting a business plan to investors, two to five page executive summary style plans are in vogue. But for you, the value in writing a business plan comes from the questions you ask yourself and the roadmap you set for yourself.

* The best market research you can do is use your eyes and your ears. You have to differentiate yourself.

* Do your research, but don't educate yourself out of your dream. Create a prototype and test it out.

And one of my favorite quotes of the evening: "If you are not enjoying what you are doing, go back to your day job."

For the 125 or so of you who attended last night, what advice resonated with you? 

(Photos by  Cecil Brown of Everlasting Memories were provided by YPN Miami. Top: Felecia Hatcher of Feverish Ice Cream; Middle: Melissa Krinzman of Venture Archtects; Bottom: crowd attending Entrepreneurship Education Series; Marco Scanu of 345 Group and Joshua Blank of MiamiSeedlings.)

News: Washington announces new lending initiatives for small business

By Ina Paiva Cordle

Clare Whelan knows firsthand how hard it is to secure the vital funding necessary to keep a small business afloat.

Last year, her Little Haiti-based commercial carpentry and welding firm, Doors Inc., “had no working capital and no way to get any” — until SCORE helped her get a $50,000 loan from Miami Bayside Foundation.

“Now, we’re in a situation where we are seeing more contracts coming up, but the credit line is not there for working capital, and we definitely continue to need some help,” said Whelan, Doors Inc.’s president and chief executive. “The big clients, like the hospitals, require 30 to 45 days to pay, and it’s very difficult for us to front the cost of materials and pay our guys every week or every two weeks.”

For businesses like Whelan’s federal assistance might be on the way. (Photo shows Clare at Doors Inc. during her Miami Herald Small Business Makeover last year.)

On Wednesday, the Obama administration announced several initiatives geared to help small businesses expand and create jobs, reduce paperwork, make it easier to access loans through the Small Business Administration, and get tax credits.

Marjorie Weber, chair for SCORE Miami-Dade, said the moves will hopefully make it easier for South Florida businesses to get SBA-guaranteed loans and spur banks to participate in SBA programs.

“The demand is there,” Weber said. “People get upset because the process is so slow and complicated, and the paperwork is so much more intense than going conventionally, but the SBA terms are usually much more favorable.”

The SBA is relaunching “Small Loan Advantage,” one of its key small dollar loan products, as “SLA 2.0.”

 The revamped program raises the maximum loan amount from $250,000 to $350,000, streamlines the loan process, and makes it easier for lenders to extend loans, the government said.

The SBA is also changing its process for businesses to get surety bond guarantees under $250,000, eliminating the need for contractors to complete five unnecessary forms to apply for the bonds. The move is aimed at making it easier for small businesses, particularly in the construction industry, to get contracts, the White House said.

Another initiative cuts down on the application process for the SBA’s Disaster Loan Program; while yet another will accelerate federal payments to small business subcontractors.

In addition, President Barack Obama is calling on Congress to let small businesses write off up to $250,000 in capital investments, such as machinery and equipment, in 2013.

That proposal, in particular, would be a major boon for small businesses, said Brian Clay, executive vice president and Business Banking director at Miami Lakes-based BankUnited.

“It’s all positive,” Clay said. “It is all in line to expedite small businesses getting access to credit, and in some cases, it will prompt them to reenter the credit markets and apply for credits.”

 -----

What do you think? Will these initiatives help your business? Has securing a loan been hard for you?

 

Florida dives in CNBC ranking for business-friendliness

Florida lost lots of ground in CNBC’s annual ranking of business-friendly states. 

A stingy investment climate helped knock Florida into the bottom half of the list
of “America’s Top States for Business,” falling from No. 18 in 2011 to No. 29. 
Florida took the biggest hit in the category access to capital, falling from No. 9
in 2011 down to No. 24 this year. There was a 7 point drop to  No. 42 
in education. Florida does rank extremely high for its workforce -- No. 3 down
from No. 2 last year -- in part thanks to its low ratio of unionized workers.
CNBC continues to rank the Sunshine State’s economy among the worst in the
nation, with Florida retaining its No. 47 slot in that category. 
The top 5 states for business, according to the ranking:
1. Texas  #1 in Infrastructure & Transportation; #35 in Quality of Life)
2. Utah (#6 in Cost of Living; #45 in Education)
3. Virginia (#3 in Business Friendliness; #33in Infrastructure & Transportation)
4. North Carolina (#3 in Workforce; #31 in Economy)
5. North Dakota (#2 in Economy; #47 in Technology & Innovation)
DOUGLAS HANKS 
 

Four disciplines -- including anthropology -- team up to tackle mobile tech at FAU

How many anthropologists does it take to develop a mobile application? Maybe just one, when your team also includes engineering, business and graphic design students! A good example of cross-discipline collaboration in teaching the entrepreneurial process comes to us from Florida Atlantic University:

About 80 FAU engineering, business, graphic design and anthropology students recently teamed up to develop health-related mobile applications during a unique interdisciplinary course titled  “Android App Design and Project Management”  designed to expose students to the product and business development life cycle for a mobile application.

The outcome  was seven new and potentially marketable applications, which were included in a press release this week:

·         Quick Key Campus -- an emergency call application intended for students in an emergency situation.  The application has a special code for setting off an emergency alert on the phone and notifying university authorities and emergency support services. 

·         Croyza -- an app that tracks symptoms for patients so they can give doctors a journal of all problems, aches and pains as they happen throughout the day.

·         DocQuest -- an app that helps people  find doctors, see reviews and make appointments.

·         ePrescription -- a prescription tracking app that sets a schedule and notifies the user that it’s time to take their medications.

·         eScriptPlus -- an application that allows doctors to electronically write prescriptions, send them to the pharmacy for fulfillment and keeps a record for each patient. This procedure will be needed to comply with new government regulation that all prescriptions have to be electronic with at least 40 percent of all Medicare being automated by 2013.

·         EvacuateNow! -- an application specifically geared to support organizations that help elderly and  disabled patients during a time of crisis like hurricanes and tornados.  This too lets these organizations comply with government regulations.

·         Uninsured Solutions --  an app for the uninsured in the area who need to find support, especially emergency support without insurance.

From taking the class, Mathew Hudson, project leader of the Quick Key Campus team, learned that bringing people together from different disciplines to reach a common goal and help people  "is my passion, it's my heart." 

Hudson, a senior majoring in international business, has already started the business with one of his class team members,  Andrew Stadtlander, an engineering major. They named the company Stadson Technology and they brought on three members from the class team, plus others. They plan to bring the app, now in the demo phase, first to FAU, and then go nationwide.

"We had a blast doing it. Now we have created a business out of it and we have office space [in the Technology Business Incubator] just off campus," Hudson said.

Some of the other teams also said they will continue to work on their projects.

Jeanne McConnell, instructor in the College of Business who teaches entrepreneurial classes, was one of the four professors, each from a different college, who taught the Spring semester class. She explained that the seven teams developed prototypes and marketing plans. "At the end of the class, instead of a final exam they presented a business plan -- very practical, very real life," said McConnell, who also said a group of her business students were working at Lockheed Martin this summer on mobile technology.

 OK, but why anthropology? "We needed programmers, we needed art students for the user interface and of course the business students. But when you put together a bunch of personalities, the anthropology students offered a human perspective we wouldn't have had otherwise," McConnell said.

One of those students was Mark Anthony Burgarelli,  who graduated in May in anthropology and is now working for an advertising agency doing market research. He also plans to pursue his master's in anthropology. In one of the groups, he acted as an observer studying the group dynamics (one finding: most of the problems came down to miscommunication). As part of a second group, he applied his considerably deep anthropological research skills to doing market research for the team.

"The students loved the idea of working on something that is really current," he told me. "Students often ask, when will I use this stuff? It's this kind of project that shows where you will use the stuff." 

(Photo shows FAU students who collaborated to develop the Quick Key Campus application.  Team members from left to right: Andrew Stadtlander (engineering); Haley Grosky (business); James Matthew Gan (graphic art); Ashley Elder (engineering); Jourdan Fletcher (business); Cherie Thompson (anthropology); Rufus Jones (engineering); Mathew Hudson (business).

 

Are you an entrepreneur? 5,000+ took a poll

More than 5,000 people have already taken the recent   "Are You An Entrepreneur? " survey, adapted from a Kauffman FastTrac questionnaire and posted on forbes.com this summer.

Perhaps not surprisingly, passion is the number one reason for wanting to start a company. Networking skills and business acumen are areas in which these aspiring entrepreneurs most want to improve.

 What did survey respondents see as their barriers to entry? Money, money, money -– and figuring out how to get started, Kauffman said. Topping the responses to a question about the "biggest obstacle to starting my own company," 36 percent of aspiring founders cited financing, followed closely by "knowing where to begin" (34.7 percent). Much farther down the scale of concern were fear of failure (10.1 percent) and finding a partner (6.5 percent).

Check out the findings in this infograph.

Fortunately in South Florida, we have plenty of agencies and organizations willing to help entrepreneurs. Check out a list of them here.

 

When friends are also startup partners, put roles, expectations in writing

My guest post today is by Susan Amat, executive director of the University of Miami's Launch Pad, who writes this monthly column called Entrepreneurship Tools for the Miami Herald. Here is her column.

Find earlier columns by Susan here and here. 

By Susan Amat

Two friends are sitting at a bar. John is waxing on about how much email he receives and how much time it takes to sort through the junk. Six months later, his friend Jane releases an email sorting application that learns your interests and makes associations from past actions. Should John have an equity position in Jane’s product? What if John had said one solution was developing an intelligent sorting program? Does your perspective change if John has no technical background and Jane is a skilled computer scientist and serial entrepreneur? What value does an idea have when it isn’t coupled with execution?

Many entrepreneurs develop their "change the world" business ideas talking with friends or family. When you have a shared a-ha! moment, the next questions you ask may save your relationship and avoid time-consuming and expensive problems down the line.

"In start-ups, friends and family members are generally excited about developing and/or marketing a product or service, and underestimate the need for proper legal documentation, tax considerations and solid corporate governance," says Brent Friedman, IT counsel to large and small companies including GE Healthcare, Citrix, Carnival Corp., CareCloud and many startups. "At a minimum, they must ascertain who will invest what, who will own what, and who decides what pertaining to the business."

One of my favorite former students wrote a business plan with a couple of classmates for a graded project. At the end of the semester, they were all gung-ho on making the business a reality. While she has spent more than 200 hours this summer doing research, making contacts, designing marketing materials and more, the others haven’t spent a dime or a minute on the product. In an email chain they all agreed to an equal partnership with no discussion of "what if" scenarios as other opportunities and distractions come into play. Now what?

Whether the company is a startup or a large firm, Friedman approaches issues such as organizational structure and capital contributions of stakeholders in a similar fashion. "It is critical up front to define specific individual or corporate contributions to an enterprise, joint venture, strategic alliance or partnership. I always start by asking who is contributing what, and who will end up with what." If my former student had discussed expectations and set clear roles and responsibilities with her teammates, the momentum she has created would be something to celebrate instead of causing more hurdles as she renegotiates the corporate structure.

Another friend brainstormed with a college buddy for months and decided they would be partners in their new startup. One is very driven and has a clear vision for the business based on his experience and education. The other had some computer science development experience. They defined their roles as CEO/CFO and the other would act as CTO. When it came time to start developing the software, the CTO’s skill set could not offer anything to further the company from a technical standpoint. They had to outsource all of their development and support needs at a time when their limited resources were already being stretched.

While it is easy to pull in a friend to partner on your dream, make sure that person has the skills and shares the vision to execute on your idea. If your friend has experience in that industry, or skills to scale a business and a great network, that sets the tone of the business for your future employees and potential investors. Allocating equity to key team members makes sense — their stake aligns their interests and may attract executives with more experience to accept a significant salary reduction. Being stuck with someone who owns a large stake of the company and can only offer skills that are redundant to another member in their team of three may limit their growth and may cause issues as they seek investment and have to defend a weak founding team that outsourced a key component of their value proposition.

Friedman suggests that the "organizational documents contain readjustment provisions that allow for a recalculation of the equity participations of the parties in the event that disparities arise on the value of their contributions over time." That means even when the founders agree to who owns what, any investments of time, money or milestones that were documented in the agreement must then be met over a specified period of time for the full amount to be "earned."

Had my friend’s team put that in place, even if 10,000 founder’s shares were assigned to the "CTO," the fact that he was able to offer less value than was expected may have resulted in only 1,000 shares ultimately being earned over the first year of his working with the firm.

A close friend of mine is an experienced financial services professional and saw a great opportunity to solve a major pain point for her clients, as well as her competitor’s clients. She spoke to another friend who developed a basic website and intake system, spending less than $10K of billable-time altogether. She is about to quit her job to run this business full-time while the developer spent a few evenings and a weekend of his time making the site. At this point, the business has her reputation and experience, her software licenses and equipment, her clients, a great name, and a website.

To guard against imbalances of contributions, Friedman suggests that his clients "retain an interest in specific assets or products that they are contributing to the enterprise, so that they retain ownership of the assets that they contributed by merely providing the enterprise with a revocable license to the products. This protects the contributing party in the event of a dispute among principals or the demise of the entity."

While it is fun and exciting to brainstorm your business, giving the same energy to defining roles and documenting the structure and ownership with the help of an experienced lawyer may be the most valuable use of time. Those hours may shed light on facets of your partner’s personality you may not see otherwise.

Susan Amat is co-founder and executive director of The Launch Pad at the University of Miami, which has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs develop skills, make connections and launch businesses. She also leads Startup Florida. Follow her on Twitter: @SusanAmat

 

3 ways to impress at a networking event

My guest blogger today is digital marketing executive Jeff Zelaya. This post first appeared on his blog, http://jeffzelaya.com

By Jeff Zelaya

According to studies first impressions are formed within 7 to 17 seconds of meeting someone.

You will never get a second chance at a first impression and once you make an impression on somebody it is a very difficult thing to change it. Don’t leave a first impression to chance instead check out these three ways that you can leave a memorable first impression…in a good way of course.

1. Have an Elevator Pitch

If you’re like most business people and community leaders, you often devote long hours to prepare for important speeches and presentations. In contrast, we often don’t put that same energy and attention into the “speech” we deliver most often– our self-introduction or better know as the Elevator Pitch.

To capture the right attention and provoke interest in you, remember that no one (except mom) really cares about you as a person. People that you meet at a networking event mostly have the “What’s in it for me” or the WIIFM mentality. So be sure to appeal to this mentality. Ask questions get to know about the person first and then flip it on them.

Think first about what problems your expertise could specifically solve for the person you’re meeting, or how you might make that individual or company’s life more profitable, secure, fun, less stressful, or otherwise better in specific ways. Appeal to the person’s interest as best as you can. The more specific you are to them the better the results you will have.

Protip #1: Make the Elevator Pitch as interesting and as succinct as possible. People have short attentions spans and a “short to the point” elevator pitch is far more memorable. You can also make your elevator pitch more interesting by instead of saying: “I’m Jeff Zelaya and I’m an SEO Consultant and help businesses optimize their websites so that they can get more traffic and conversions,” Say: “I’m Jeff Zelaya and I help businesses get more customers from Google.”

The second version of the elevator pitch will usually intrigue the person that you are talking enough that they typically ask the follow up question : “How do you do that?” This is an invitation for you to be able to continue with your elevator pitch and provide more specific details on how you may be able to help them.

Protip #2: If you’re having trouble crafting your Elevator Pitch you might want to check out
this neat little app: WowPitch. The app helps you create a powerful 30-second elevator pitch as is available for the iPhone and iPad. The app actually walks you through the entire process of how to create an elevator pitch down to the selection of the actual words. Click here to learn more about the WowPitch App.

2. Dress The Part

You can tell a lot about a person based on what they wear. First impressions are very visual so be ready with your look. According to Business Insider first impressions are formed within 7 to 17 seconds of meeting someone; 55% of a person’s opinion is determined by physical appearance.

If you are a physician and you show up to a networker in shorts and flip flops you will have a hard time getting people to believe that you are an actual MD. Dress according to the event setting and also based on your career. Being in professional attire will only go to help you make a
favorable impression.

Dressing the part is not only about the clothes that you choose but also on your grooming. Clip your
fingernails, shave, take a shower…etc. Looking like you just rolled out of bed will leave people with a bad impression no matter what. Take the time to dress and groom yourself well before a networking event and you’ll be transformed into the person that everyone wants to talk to and get to know.

Protip: If you want to learn more about dressing for success, check out these two links.

The Importance of Dressing for Success

Dress to Network — Every Encounter Counts

3. Follow up

When a networking event is over the networking doesn’t stop, in fact it is only the beginning of the relationship. That’s why the follow up is critical. If you don’t follow up within 24 hours chances are that you might be forgotten and a potential opportunity can be missed. This will also help you
stand out because so few people actually have perfected the follow up.

Hopefully, you have collected business cards so you can follow up with the people you met. The card should of course have the person’s contact information but also any notes that you took down on them while speaking with them. These notes should help you remember who they are and action steps of what you promised them you were going to do.

Please do not spam people that trust you with their business card unless they specifically asked to be part of your list or receive certain information that you promised. Remember that they might have only said yes to be polite so confirm with them again before doing so anyways.

Protip: Google the person that you are reaching out. Depending on the conversation I like to add people to my LinkedIn network so that I can reach out to them in the future and stay in touch with them periodically. You might want to do them same…but at least if you Google them you can do
research on the person and be familiar with who they are and what they do. This research will help you in carrying a conversation and in building a relationship and rapport with the individual.

Jeff Zelaya is a digital marketing executive who advises senior marketing executives at Fortune 1000 companies how to drive incremental revenue through unique digital marketing campaigns, tactics and strategies. Jeff is also a public speaker. Check out his blog at http://jeffzelaya.com