What does a retail product have to do with Social Networking?  Read on and find out.

In 1991, I was approached by a friend to help him market a new idea.  It was a liquid spray frost remover.  The concept materialized in July and by December we were in every major mass merchandiser across Canada amassing $2.4 million in sales.

By no means do I take full credit, but I do take some.  We named the product Frostbuster and created a line of other 'Buster' products to follow up after Winter sales.  Our success was so remarkable, that by the following January, Atlantic Promotions made our investors a deal they could not refuse.

TRUE PIONEERS

The fact that we took a product from concept to marketplace success was not the remarkable thing about this story.  What was remarkable was how and when we did it.

None of us had any retail experience

None of us had any product development experience

We were a brand new company

We only had one product when we started

In fact, we only had a mock up product to start with

The category didn't exist in retail

There was no history

Winter purchasing at Mass Merchandisers was done in June....we started in July!

Why were we successful?

Quite frankly....networking!  We were great at it!

We were honest, sincere, active, responsive and fully transparent.  We made friends fast.  We kept them.  And we nurtured them.  All the things you need to do to be successful not only in Social Networking....but also in life.