My goal was to have a meal or coffee with a new person every week for 52 weeks. By far the best business and career development decision I ever made.

To challenge myself I put a few names on the list of people who I knew I would have to work hard to get an audience with. These were people, who at the time, were out of my proverbial reach. But, I even got them!  In fact several of them ended up chasing me.

The quickest way to come across 52 candidates are:

• Join several networking groups.  Eg  BNI.
• Don’t limit yourself to a particular industry or person type.
• Be bold and ask ask ask.
• Pay for the meal or coffee. (Word gets around if you are stingy)

Have a favorite place to meet and get to know the wait staff well. This just looks impressive. I had an account at a local diner which saved valuable time during the meetings also.

The monetary return on investment was partly immediate but it’s best to go in with a long term view on return. I would have to say, within 12-24 months, it increased my market worth two-fold. No lie.

The personal return is impossible to measure because I gained some great friends in the process.

So give yourself a worthy financial year goal like I did. Your confidence in your ability and market worth will grow.  You’ll meet some great people. You’ll learn some highly valuable people skills. AND you’ll drink plenty of coffee… and that’s always a great thing!

I get the feeling that the Sunshine Coast economy is picking up and businesses are making the most of the “New Beginnings” that a fresh calendar year brings. A lot of my clients are bringing fresh ideas and concepts to me. It’s great!

As my web design and graphics business “Brainspace” comes into the new year, we have already started branching out into some new areas.  What I am most excited about is creating iPhone Apps.

I’ve just completed one for Pastor Steve Penny who is using the iPhone App to allow people a ‘single click’ into his life and ministry as he travels the globe speaking to churches and leaders.

From his App you can:
Read his Blog
Read his Twitter
Listen to sermons
Watch video sermons
View his Bio, Photos, Links and more

The App has been so popular that it overloaded the server that hosted the media files yesterday! (All good now)

Feel free to check it out via the link below or search for ‘Steve Penny’ on your iphone App store. Let us know if YOU or someone you know would like an App or website built as well!

If you don’t mind, I’m naming next year 2010sen.

I’ll be working across the break excluding the public holidays so please don’t hesitate in contacting me with any requests.

This is posted from my iPhone using the great WordPress 2 app. The smile is courtesy of my daughter.

Dave Tensen