Building relationships is one of the most important things you can do to help your business grow. Many people think that all they need to do to get business is to go to networking events and hand out their business cards. It's possible, but not likely, that will happen. To build a network, you have to put in time, energy, and work. By building this network, you make connections with people who know, like, and trust you enough to do business with you.
I saw two men at a networking event who had no idea what networking was all about. The first man walked up to me, said his name, asked me what my name was, and then told me what he did and how it could help me. He then went to talk to someone else, and a second man came up, introduced himself, didn't bother to get my name, and told me about what he was selling. He then left to talk to someone else. If I called either of these men, they wouldn't remember me, and I don't know if I like or trust them, so there's no way I'll do business with them. It's a waste of time to meet people this way. You might as well stay at home if you're not willing to build your network, get to know the people, and maybe figure out how you can help them.
People who don't run their own businesses can also network. We all have a group of people we can count on. We could use their services, get job leads from them, or ask for help from them when we were looking for work. This is what I call "cross-pollination," and everyone does it. Building relationships with the people in our network is very important if we want to get good tips and advice. If you don't take care of your network, you might not have the resources or references you need when you need them the most.
To be successful, you need to have a network. To have a useful network, you need to build and maintain relationships and think about how you can help your network before you think about what you can get from it. Zig Ziggler says that the best way to grow your business is to help someone else grow hers. Givers get. You don't just take from your network; you also give back to it. The secret is that you will get more back from your network the more you give to it.
