Networking is a hot topic — and common practice — among professionals. If you are known as a competent, friendly practitioner, people will be glad to help you increase your business.

Try this! Here's where being involved in your community can be rewarding beyond the good you do for others. Generally, most successful people seek to put something back into their communities, and these are just the kinds of men and women who should be getting to know you, and vice versa.

Think of it as "selfless self-promotion!" The more sincerely you give of your time and energies, and the less you talk about yourself or your business, the more you will be accepted into the "movers-and shakers" networks in your area. It's the best form of self-promotion there is, since it lets you sell yourself without appearing self-serving. The payoff? When the time or circumstances are right, you may not even have to ask people for help, they may go out of their way to recommend you!