There are many business networking events on the market for you to join but if you were to join all of them you would end up parting with a serious amount of cash you probably never do anything else.

It is however just like any other business investment and you can mitigate the risk by weighing up your options carefully. In order to help you I have prepared some business networking advice for your convenience.

Ask yourself the following question; what am I trying to achieve through business networking? If you are struggling to answer the question then frankly you probably are going to end up wasting your money. But consider some of these potential answers:

* Find contacts with potential clients or with folks who share a similar customer base.
* To become more confident at presentation.
* Get advice or ideas from other business entrepreneurs.
* Develop you network of potential suppliers.
* Contribute to a network of like-minded individuals that mutually support each other.

My next business networking advice is to think about who you want to network with:

* Are you looking for direct contact with your potential customers or maybe people who work with a similar customer base to yourself?
* Would you prefer to mix with men and women what would a single sex group be more your cup of tea?
* Do you need to concentrate on a particular industry sector such as telecoms or manufacturing?
* Is the size of a relevant? Think about whether you prefer large groups or small groups when meeting new people.  Read more...

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It is no surprise that most business owners do not get the most out of their business networking events. Successful networking takes time and effort to establish the relationship beyond the first meeting. People who have successfully tap on the networking platform as part of their marketing channel will see tremendous result for their businesses. The following are some of the advices for having more businesses through successful networking.

If there is only one thing that is important in business networking, that would be follow up. Following up with your contacts is extremely important not only you can maintain a much deeper relationship with your contact but also explore new collaboration opportunities to help one another. Based on my experience, I think less than 80% of the people follow up within 24 hours after networking event. Timing is another important factor when following up and you must make sure that your contacts still remember you! Most of the time, sending a personalized thank you email after the event is a good start.

Positive attitude is also one of the factors for successful networking. When you are meeting new contacts, it is very important to express your positive and proactive attitude because most business owners would like to do business with these high energy people. No one will want to have business deals with someone who is low energy and always focus on things that do not work out. As a rule of thumb, I always look back for the past one month for good news for my business so as to share with my new contacts when we meet up.  Read more...

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A few weeks ago I went to a networking event. There was a good speaker there – Andy Lopata. I hadn’t actually heard of him before but apparently he’s known as Mr Networker by the Sun. I liked what he went on about as it seemed very aligned with our thinking here at Position Ignition and what I have learned through working with Simon and also what I have observed and learned through my own experiences. The points outlined below aren’t just a regurgitation of what I heard from this talk. The talk spurred me on to think about this topic and in this article is what is occurring to me now.

Networking has been quite a ‘hot’ topic recently and seems to be the ‘thing to do’. Everyone is doing it! I thought that it might be useful to jot down a few learnings and observations of what feel like pretty common mistakes made when ‘networking’ or building connections:

Attending a networking event and ‘selling’

Ok, so when we ‘network’ -many of us have the underlying agenda where we are after something. Usually we want the people we meet to help us in some way. We are after a promotion, a new job, some insight and inspiration on what to do next and so on. We would like the people we meet to help us in our career and lives. This is fair enough – however, going to a networking event and spending all of your time trying to ‘sell’ yourself or whatever your company offers isn’t particularly useful. How many people are there to ‘buy’? None right? So don’t sell! Go there to get to know the people around you. Don’t shove your life story or current major problem or need in their faces. They don’t know you yet so they aren’t going to help you if you just ‘sell sell sell’. No-one likes a salesperson – so don’t be one.  Read more...

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Build your network is a challenge for most people. How do you meet people and build relationships? Here are three important things you can do to take advantage of your network.

Join your professional association, but the One?

If you’re not a member of your professional association, you will lose the opportunity to network. There may be some challenges here, so we try to address them.

One of the challenges is that there is more of an association of your profession. That do not participate? Ask your boss and other managers this question: What are the professional associations do not you subscribe? If he belongs to all of them, the newsletter of the association and / or magazine you read regularly? And the monthly association meetings, conferences and meetings did you attend?

These questions, and you know that the association to join. You can also learn why your boss is an organizational value above the other.

Another challenge is associated with poor publicity and meetings. As a result, feels a waste of time and money. Do not Give Up.

If there are good local experience, check out your city, state and national associations. Many times these larger versions of the same organization provides publications, meetings and networking opportunities you seek.

Whereas almost all professional associations allows you to participate as guests, so you can see all of them to discover the best to join.

The Number one thing to do  Read more...

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Face-to-face networking is very useful to know if you want to meet potential clients or contact with people who can drive customers to its own direction. I agree that social networking on the web has grown by leaps and bounds. However, live interaction brings Primal affect human communication. Approximately 90 percent of personal communication is conveyed through nonverbal actions. You can walk, posture, handshake, eye contact, facial expressions and appearance of a personal ringing tone, rate, pitch, speed and bending to share with the amounts that are wise people in the readers. This type of communication is missing online. Or about 10 percent.

Not a networking event has its own sector of business. For example, I could network with other consultants, but it is also useful to network with small business lending officers. Find out what customers do in their free time and what their interests might be. Go to where your customers are your customers or associations.

Networking strategy focuses on the marketing plan objectives, action plan and timetable. Not everyone in your pipeline is a potential client. Rather, they know can be just as valuable as you make the sale themselves. Who you know is important, but who knows you is also important.

More you have to offer, the easier it is to talk about people. Building the credibility of the relationship, especially in the start-up, it can be difficult. If you keep in mind WIIFT’What’s it for them?’, Is referrals, information, or assistance to the problem, so you have a better chance of making contact, a good first impression, and productive.  Read more...

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Although it may seem illogical, mastering the art of network requires that you first understand what networking is NOT.

- Networking is not schmoozing, a concept which involves insincere flattery and attention.

- Networking is not about having two meetings, so ask about a career boost.

- Networking is not about exploiting others to get what you want.

- Networking is not about you.

To put it bluntly: the network has never been and will never be about you. Networking is about developing a genuine curiosity of others and find ways to add value to their lives. The essence of the intelligent network is captured in a quote by Winston Churchill:”You make a living by what you get, you make a life by what you give.”Those who understand the golden rule of the Network (it’s to give value to others) will achieve great success. Those that don’t want to walk a lonely road.

Now that we know what network ISN’T, it’s time to ask yourself,”Why should I network? ”

Why is networking important? Because in this world who you know often matters much more than what you know. Not convinced? Here are three statistics which will help reformulate your thoughts:

+ Employee referrals are the # 1 source of external hiring.

+ Job Seekers looking for a position with an employee referral is 70x more likely to be employed than without.  Read more...

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