Networking Tips and Business Communication Advice
Running a business is more than just creating products and selling them; it’s also about creating professional relationships and selling your ideas, dreams, and goals. In order for a business to be able to expand its horizons and undertake new opportunities, it will require creating and maintaining strong business relationships with other professionals.
This is what’s known as networking and can often be one of the more difficult parts of running a business. Networking can be challenging in the beginning as building relationships is often a difficult process, but maintaining them isn’t exactly easy either. The list of contacts on your phone will grow, and it can get difficult to keep track of them.
Luckily, there is an app that can help you with contact management. While this app can help maintain your contacts, it won’t help to create them. You will have to do the business networking part all on your own.
What Is Networking?
No business can be run all by one person. Every single business will require working relationships with other people in some form or fashion and are an essential part of every company. Networking is the process where professionals build these important relationships with other like-minded individuals to help one another accomplish their business-related goals.
Typically, you would attend a networking event for many reasons, such as:
To obtain professional advice
to create an expansive network and meet interesting people
make a meaningful connection with other professionals or business owners
To gain industry knowledge
Get feedback about your business
Meet recruiters
Hear about job openings
There are several benefits to networking sessions, including generating new ideas, learning more about your industry, and establishing new partnerships for your business. The potential benefits of properly networking are invaluable and can play a huge role in the overall success or failure of a business.
Networking Tips To Get You Started
Whether you know it or not, you have had some experience with networking before. Children are taught at a very young age how to socialize and build friendships with their classmates. Obviously, this is slightly different from business-oriented networking, but it’s mostly the same principles. Here are a few tips that can help you get started with networking:
Attend Networking Events
The first part of networking is to put yourself out there to make new connections and new acquaintances. There are tons of professionals out there looking to establish mutually beneficial business relationships or looking for potential opportunities. It shouldn’t be particularly difficult to find networking events in your area.
Your local chamber of commerce or various small business associations is a good place to start. There are most likely lots of networking opportunities to be found when attending a conference or event relating to your industry. These networking events can be held live or even as video calls. It's just a different way of networking because you're not able to develop the same rapport easily as you would in person after a firm handshake and eye contact.
But, in recent years, there has been a growing trend of networking events taking place online so you can easily meet others without even having to travel. These are conducted on social media platforms, Google Meet, or other platforms.
The more people you meet and talk with, the more likely you are to establish a solid business relationship. After attending a few events and making some "networking efforts," you'll begin to grow your networking confidence.
Find Common Ground
After introducing yourself to a fellow professional, the next step will be to try and find some common ground. This part is pretty important, and it can be a little challenging sometimes. Being an active listener can help you to learn more about your new acquaintance and help create a quick bond.
It’s important to remember that although you are trying to establish a business relationship, you can still be yourself. You will most likely share several common experiences with someone in the same industry as you, but it’s your personal lives that can help create a stronger business relationship.
For example, a mutual appreciation for golf has led to millions of business relationships being created. Golf has nothing to do with running a business, but the shared appreciation of the game is one way to network.
Finding common ground can take a business acquaintance and turn it into a business relationship.
Relax
Networking events can often feel pretty intimidating and awkward. If you go into them with firm goals and expectations, you will be adding even more pressure into a pretty uncomfortable situation. It will be pretty difficult to network whenever you feel nervous, tense, or uptight effectively. Instead of having lofty expectations, try to stay relaxed and just be yourself.
Being relaxed can help you appear more confident, which is an important thing in the business world. However, you shouldn’t be thinking of it as trying to establish business connections that might become vital to your organization. Think of it as trying to make a new friend or going on a blind date. Just try to have a good time connecting with the other person and live in the moment.
A business relationship may develop in the future, but you shouldn’t be thinking of that whenever you first meet someone. If you stay relaxed and be yourself, you’ll be just fine and make connections in no time.
Create A Business Card
One of the most common examples of networking is using business cards. Despite being just a tiny card that easily fits in your wallet, a business card contains a ton of relevant information. Your name and contact information are very important when trying to establish new contacts, but the card itself can say a lot about you as well.
Be mindful of how your business card looks, as it will be the lasting impression you make. A catchy or unique business card can help you to stay in front of another professional's mind. You want them to remember you after you meet each other, and a business card can be an easy and inexpensive way to do that.
And a good way to remember each person you meet is to scribble some info about them on the back of their business card. This way, you have details for the next meeting, follow ups or LinkedIn requests. This also helps you to remember if they made a great first impression, what their line of business is, what your shared interest is,
Use Social Media
Social media is a great way to network and meet lots of people quickly and easily. Networking is the entire point of social media. You can create a profile and network either in a professional or personal sense.
Use the opportunity to spread information about your business, your goals, and you as an individual. Business-oriented social media like LinkedIn can help you to reach other professionals and exchange information. Posting often will help to grow your brand and build your credibility in your industry. This will attract people to your profile and provide more opportunities to network.
Just remember that what goes on the internet will stay there forever, so be careful about what you post.
Download A Contact Management App
Networking will involve more than just establishing relationships; you will also have to maintain them. It can get pretty difficult trying to organize the contact information of your business relationships.
Instead of trying to store business cards or a physical index, you should just use an app instead. For example, the mobile app Dialed can help you with contact management in a few different ways. One of the more helpful features is creating contact sheets that will include all of your previous calls and texts associated with the number.
Not only will you customize the contact and include all relevant information, but you will also be able to create groups and labels for your contacts. Even a feature will allow you to set priorities for certain contacts and other VIPs on your list. As a bonus, Dialed even offers features to help you to block spam calls so that you can keep your line clear and ready to receive important calls.
The Takeaway
Networking is an often overlooked part of running a business that can be extremely important. How you create, build, and maintain professional relationships with others can play a very large role in your overall success or failure.
A lot of the focus of networking is on the beginning. Meeting people and making a connection is important, but it’s also important to maintain these connections. Using an app like Dialed can help you keep your contacts organized to easily and efficiently maintain your business connections.
SOURCES:
Why Networking is so Difficult | cultivatingcareers.com
