Stefan Thomas shares his top tips for 2023

Stefan Thomas is a keynote speaker and author of Business Networking for Dummies. He speaks at conferences across Europe and his clients include BT, Oxford Brookes University, The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, Oqema and many more on leadership, sales, networking skills and career building skills.

Here he shares his top tips for a positive 2023

Network
It never ceases to amaze me how the answer to so many business problems and challenges can be found in someone's network - and how many opportunities present themselves if you choose to use that network correctly.

Insulate yourself
This doesn't mean ignoring the news, quite the opposite. I absolutely don't subscribe to the 'never listen to the news' philosophy. I believe it is advantageous to be informed, to look for opportunities in what is happening around us and to teach ourselves to focus on what actually matters, rather than allowing the news to depress us.

Market, promote, make sure that everyone knows what you do and keep doing that every day
Something which small businesses suffer from is an embarrassment about actually marketing themselves. Go into any fashion retailer anywhere and it will be obvious where you pay, there are bloody great signs hanging on the ceiling saying "PAY HERE'. Don't hide the till, make sure that as well as being amazing at what you do, that you actually tell people about it.

Take advantage of the huge opportunities 2023 presents
We have never had so many options to promote our businesses. For most of my career if you wanted to promote a business you 'phoned the local paper and paid for an advert. In 2023 we have LinkedIn and Facebook and Instagram and Tik Tok and, at the time if writing, Twitter. Plus podcasts and YouTube videos and loads of other specialist platforms too. The world doesn't care if you didn't grow up with social media so learn how to use it if you don't already. The opportunity far outweighs the effort needed to learn how to do it.

To learn more about Stefan visit his website at https://www.stefanthomas.biz/