How do you generate opportunities? How is it that some people  just know how to spot an opportunity?

I don’t think they do, I think they create them little by little and do the things that no one else notices until the opportunity happens and everyone around them says, “Where did that come from?”

I think opportunities are created by people who aren’t ready or qualified for them. The difference is they don’t make excuses, they just seize them.

I love what Shane Robinson said in a recent article about creating opportunities in Forbes,

Condition yourself to be in a state of constant preparedness…
Along the same lines of fear, you must forget about the preoccupation with making a mistake…which is not to say be careless. But I do mean that if you are going to make a mistake, then make it out of ambition and courage, not out of laziness or fear.

I can’t tell you how much I would rather be making mistakes out of ambition rather than laziness. You?  That far exceeds my fear of criticism because I know I will have actually tried.

How do you create these opportunities as a marketer? As a small business owner? Or as anyone else in the business world trying to move forward?

I have found one simple technique that is incredibly helpful for me in generating opportunities I would have never otherwise known about.  Personally for me I need to break things down to the absolute dumbest and easiest thing possible for me to be able to do it repeatedly. So I created a simple list I appropriately titled the opportunity generation checklist.  Every day I choose 5 to 10 actions off of this list to do that fit my goals at that time.

Here’s an example of the list below that you can modify to fit the types of opportunities you want to create. If you’ve already started reading down the list, you’re probably starting to ask yourself if these could get any more simple and the answer is NO. They’re easy and broken down to the smallest steps for a reason.

SO I’LL DO THEM!

And hopefully you will too. If your goal is to build your network, choose the opportunities that involve meeting new people and giving value, if your goal is increasing your sales, go the extra mile with your next meeting.

At the beginning of the day, I like to choose my 5-10 action items from this list and list out who and what I’ll be doing. I’m usually able to knock out several at the beginning of the day and the rest during downtime in my day. It’s just a great simple way to make sure these opportunities don’t pass you by!

Opportunity Generation Checklist

• Jump into your contact manager and reach out to a few people you haven’t talked to in awhile. I use Contactually which tells me the people I haven’t talked to in awhile.
• Introduce 2 people you think should meet each other
• Read blog posts from friends and strangers and leave a thoughtful or helpful comment
• Find events coming up at Meetup.com or just Google ___ events “in your town”
• Take the time to Follow up after meetings and deliver the things you said you would.
• Answer and ask questions on Quora.com
• Engage on Linkedin: Comment on someone’s status, like a helpful update
• Promote someone on Linkedin: Endorse skills or write an endorsement
• Grow on Linkedin: Add new people to your network you recently met or join a new group.
• Share on Linkedin: A blog post you wrote or a good article you recently read.
• Share articles with your networks from your RSS reader. I use Feedly
• Gift someone an Amazon or Kindle book. You won’t believe how grateful people are for it!
• @reply new followers on Twitter and thank them for the follow. Put them on a list to make sure to engage with them.
• Answer questions and engage on forums, membership sites or Facebook groups you care about.
• Say happy birthday to someone on Facebook or even better on the phone
• Upload a picture or post on Facebook.
• Pinterest: Pin or Repin something, Like someone elses pin
• Take a little extra time to research the person you have a meeting with coming up, you never know what you can find in common.

What things can you add to the list that have helped you generate opportunities? Let me know in the comments below so I can add them!