Recently a top student in a local MBA program stopped by my office to talk about her career.

She has job offers to work with two large corporations.

One is offering her the opportunity to enter its management training program for two years - a career track that will give her great visibility within the company and a significant position at the end of the experience.

Her dilemma is that she really wants to work with a small startup or emerging company. The pace of change, the breadth of responsibilities, the dynamics of growing and adapting a new business to the market are all concepts that are more appealing to her than working in a large corporation. Her question: "How do I recognize and find the opportunity?"

This process of helping someone find a position or make a contact is repeated almost daily. As I reflected on this common problem, it occurred to me that the reason is the lack of structure. If you want to work for a large company, you contact the company's human resource ("HR") department. The company will have a defined methodology on how candidates enter the applicant pool, how the interviews take place and how the offer is made.

Entrepreneurial firms have no HR function, little or no hiring methodology and often do not know how to structure a competitive offer for employment. This lack of structure is found in several other aspects of the emerging company environment.

When looking for financing, an established business can walk into their bank, fill out a loan application and negotiate the terms of the loan package. A new business has no assets and will most likely be given no audience in the structured world of banking, leaving the entrepreneur to create the financing opportunity. Looking to individual investors, such as friends and family or angels, is a much less organized way to acquire capital.

Networking is crucial to surviving in an entrepreneurial firm, whether you are looking for employees, finding customers, acquiring capital or identifying a supplier.

Being an entrepreneur can be difficult for those who are timid in social settings or in making contacts with individuals they do not know. To be blunt: You may have to force yourself to meet the people and to make the contacts that will be important for your business.

Rhonda Abrams' book, "Six Week Start-Up," gives some suggestions to entrepreneurs on how to start the networking process, groups to join and where to find them. According to Abrams, there are several different types of groups that can provide fertile networking ground, including entrepreneurs' groups, industry associations and civic organizations, such as Rotary, Kiwanis and Lions clubs. You can find these groups in any number of places, including:

• The business section of the local newspaper.
• Small Business Development Centers (try the Web site www.asbdc-us.org, and click on Lead Centers).
• Web sites of trade associations.
• Chamber of commerce directory (visit www.uschamber.com).
• Web sites of civic organizations.

Make a decision to join those groups that will help your business.

There are some great organizations that local entrepreneurs should consider joining. Six of these were highlighted in an article published in the Deseret Morning News titled, "Networking Groups Create Opportunities for Success" (published 6/15/03).

One final recommendation: hone your skills at presenting an "elevator pitch" of your company. This pitch is a short, two-minute summary of what you do, to whom you sell and why you will be successful. Why network if you cannot communicate your exciting message while introducing yourself to a new contact? (For more guidance on constructing an elevator pitch, refer to "Honing your Elevator Pitch Can Elevate Your Company," published 9/26/04 in the Deseret Morning News.)