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By miguel-ingles
- In Uncategorized
For a correct development of a business, it is essential that its directors establish commercial relationships with clients and that they foster cooperation with other companies. For this reason, in this article I will explain the importance of networking for entrepreneurs.
What is Networking?
The term Networking describes the practice of establishing and expanding a contact network with the objective of setting up professional relationships that are beneficial for all the parts. Therefore, doing Networking will allow us to meet new commercial partners, potential clients, or just to show our products to the public.
It is not a new practice. However, it has become more popular in the last few years due to the digitalisation of the services. There are two ways of doing Networking:
The Importance of Social Networking for Entrepreneurs
Also known as Online Networking, it takes place in certain social media apps, such as LinkedIn. It allows entrepreneurs to attend events from anywhere in the world. This enables professionals from different regions to meet and make contacts with people from outside their influence area.
As a disadvantage, the digital channels limit the human component. Hence, the depth of these personal relationships will be lower than that of face-to-face interactions.
Social Networking can serve as a filter of possible contacts that may interest us. However, to strengthen a professional relationship, it is advisable to hold in-person meetings.
The Importance of Offline Networking for Entrepreneurs
This type of Networking takes place in conferences, meetings, forums, etc., but always in person. Unlike the previous case, Offline Networking allows you to establish more direct connections. It also serves to assess with more solid arguments whether a certain professional relation benefits your business.
On the other hand, some geographical and schedule conditions may limit your access to face-to-face events. Moreover, these contact networks are smaller than those of Social Networking.
Why Networking Has Such Importance for Entrepreneurs?
For some companies, establishing professional relationships with other corporations may mark the difference between being successful or failing in their business activity. This practice can bring multiple benefits to an enterprise. These are the following:
- Knowledge exchange. When connecting companies from different economic sectors, you encourage the exchange of ideas. Therefore, it foments innovation. It enables a business to use creative solutions and professional practices from other fields.
- Access to new markets. Thanks to Networking, a company might sign an agreement with other enterprises that allow it to access new markets. It also permits resource exchange or to send an employee to complete a training course or act as an advisor at the company of our business partner.
- Discover new business opportunities. It is likely that, thanks to knowing other entrepreneurs, we discover new niche markets that are not covered in the country we operate in.
- Improvement of the reputation. Participating in Networking events, especially face-to-face, but also online ones, will improve the image and reputation of the company. This will have an effect on the trust potential clients, commercial partners and investors will put into the corporation and will increase the likelihood of them collaborating with us.
Important Pieces of Advice for Networking
- Set your goals. Before attending a Networking event, evaluate which are your objectives: funding, finding commercial partners, improving the image of the company, etc.
- Inspect who are the attendants. Another aspect you must consider before going to a conference or congress is to know its attendants. Therefore, you will be able to identify the entrepreneurs you might be interested in doing business with.
- Business cards. It is important to display the contact data of our company into a card so those that could be interested in collaborating can contact you. In addition, you should write a small introductory discourse in which you explain the object of the company.
- Have a positive and nice attitude. It is essential to create a favourable impression. For that reason, you should adopt a positive attitude. It is also important that your body language shows tranquillity and that you are ready to strike up a conversation with other people.
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