Affiliate Marketing Opportunities.

Whenever I attend a networking event or some kind of gathering, and someone asks me what I do, my reply is "I help blind squirrels find nuts". I must admit, I get some funny looks. I then explain my strapline comes from the saying "Every now and then a blind squirrel finds a nut", which means there is always a chance you will stumble across some business if you work long and hard enough. The key is to improve and find more business, more often.

There are many animal-related metaphors to describe the business activity, such as "busy as a bee", "busy as a beaver" or a friend of mine's personal favorite, "fly with eagles, don't scratch with the turkeys". You can apply the lessons we learn from nature to most areas of business, and the traits we observe in some animals are among the most useful. For example, the effort a chimpanzee puts into memorizing and learning, the cooperation and willingness to work in a team as shown by the elephant, the cat-like ability to work independently and, of course, the loyalty and security of a dog. All these animals can be used metaphorically to make a point about different areas of business.

But when it comes to the area of sales, the squirrel takes some beating. Nature has a natural selection process whereby the most adaptable of species survive. Same with business. Companies who are most adaptable to change, by improving and finding new markets, are the ones most likely to survive.

The activity levels of the squirrel are much to be admired. They just keep on going, all day, every day, to find more than enough of what they need to survive. Even if you consider yourself to be not very good at sales, as long as your activity levels are high enough, the law of averages dictates you will eventually find some business. Then when you start to improve, as your activity becomes more targeted, you will start to build a healthy pipeline...

Squirrels can lose up to 25% of the food they bury. This is mainly because they are active in so many places and, again, the law of averages dictates that another squirrel will stumble upon the stash. However, this doesn't matter too much to the squirrel. He's already ensured he has enough stashed elsewhere to cover the losses. Like the squirrel, you will lose some of the business in your pipeline. You can't win them all, but you can go some way to making sure you have enough in your pipeline to replace the ones you do lose.

Squirrels are also great thinkers and know how to plan.. They start gathering in autumn to get ready for winter, a lesson in itself. A wonderful legacy of the squirrel's activity is they bury so many seeds in so many places that they forget some are there. These seeds take root and new trees are born. Without activity, there can be no growth. The squirrel is smart, has excellent work rate and is adaptable. It's also the Native American symbol for preparation and trust. Fancy that.