Business and Career Growth: Can a Business or Career Become Static and Survive?
Building a business or a career is a continual process of expanding your goods, services, skills, and network. The first day that I sat down to start my career as a recruiter, I had no contacts. I had a telephone, an empty legal pad, and a box of blank 5 x 8 index cards.
After a decade, my contact management system contained tens of thousands of contacts. I had personally tracked and created files for these people. Most of them I have reached out to by phone, email, or professional networks. I still make new connections every day. Little has changed except that my file system has gone from paper to a computer.
I continually added clients.
Here is a partial list of companies where I had recruiting contracts:
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- PepsiCo
- Pepsi Bottling Group
- Frito-Lay
- Coca Cola, USA
- Coca Cola Foods
- Mobil Oil Company
- Soft Soap
- Pillsbury Green Giant
- International Playtex
- Quaker Oats
- Dannon Corporation
- No Nonsense Fashions
- Coca-Cola Foods
- Del Monte Foods
- The Clorox Company
- Nestle
- Brach & Brock
- Catalina Marketing
- Health Resource Corporation
- Majers Corporation
- Welch Foods
- Softsoap
- E & J Gallo
- Sunny Delight
- M & M Mars
- Tambrands
- Nabisco
- News America Marketing
- El Dorado Marketing
- Imagitas
- ConAgra Foods
- ConAgra Armour Swift-Eckrich
- Polaroid Corporation
- Dial Corporation
- Dep Corporation
- United Vintners
- 7-Up
- Miller Brewing Company
- 13-30 Corporation
- Hain Celestial Group
- Q-Interactive
- Label Dollars
- Promo Edge
- Centiv
- The Sunflower Group
- PromoWorks
- The Wine Spectrum of Coca Cola
- Kaiser-Roth
- DSD Communications
- Black & Decker
- ActMedia
- Linkewell Health
- Bush Brothers Beans
- Marketing Technology Solutions
- Sunny D
- Twenty-Ten Corporation
- InStore Broadcasting Network
- Insignia Pops
- The Beecham Group
- GlaxoSmithKline – GSK
- Jacobs Suchard
- Cody Kramer
- SVP Worldwide
- Mauna Loa
- Garden Burger
- EAS
- New World Pasta Company
- Vacation Connections
- Lala USA
- Continental Promotion Group
- Kayser Roth
- Morningstar Farms
- Duracell
- Kiss Products
- Phillips Food Brokerage
- Unicous Marketing
- Kelley Clarke Food Brokerage
- Wizards of the Coast
- Oberto Sausage
- Fanfare Media
- Linkwell Communications
- Lindt
- Nurserymen’s Exchange
- Maybelline
- Advantage 360
- American Italian Pasta
- Warner Lambert
- Fuel Rewards/Centego
- First Flavor
- Potlatch Corporation
- Crossmark Food Brokerage
- RB (Reckitt Benckiser)
- Marketing Force
- J&J Snack Foods Corporation
- Cartera Commerce Inc.
- Alcon Laboratories
- Ray-O-Vac
- Naterra
- ICOM
- Slim Fast (Unilever)
- Potlatch Corporation
- Dean Foods
- …and others
Companies Come and Companies Go.
In the list are many companies that no longer exist. In some cases, the brands still exist. However, these brands are part of another company. To stay in business, I had to continue to grow new business.
Companies come and go. People come and go. Processes change. Opportunities are here today and gone tomorrow. People who build new relationships and expand their relationships will build security.
Change is constant in business and careers. The process of building a business and building a career never ends.