How to improve your networking strategy
NEW BEGINNINGS AND LEARNINGS
Melissa looks back on her past four years in business. There have certainly been highs and lows!
Last year was a real challenge, as it was for many people. However, she managed to push through and found that working from home, and having the support of her network, she actually achieved some goals to put together online offerings and expand her network globally by embracing online events.
She originally had left corporate position when she was offered a voluntary redundancy package and she grabbed it with open arms. She had decided that large organisations had restricted her growth and was keen to build her own consulting business and utilise her skills.
The first year had kept her very busy. She had not worrried that she had little income. Friends had shared their experience and she recognised it would take a while to establish herself. There was a list of things to do:-
register a business name
write up a business plan
get advise from an accountant
arrange a home office
plus she needed business cards and printing
a website
and a LinkedIn Profile.
The list went on and on and constantly that there were things she found she did not even know!
Each day she faced a new challenge. There were constantly new things she had to consider. There was so much to learn and think about! How did you write a "Blog", what was the benefits of social media, how did google analytics help and more. Melissa had like a duck out of water and quite isolated.
MAKE CONNECTION AND GAIN ACCESS TO KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE
In order to find solutions to many of her s challenges, her friends, Peter and Anne, recommended she start networking. Peter had learnt how valuable a good, strong network was and Anne had found the perspectives and experience of others so valuable in building her business. They told Melissa that is was a good way to gain knowledge, prospect for business, and find suppliers and referrers to help her manage things in her business and achieve her goals by accessing knowledge and experience of others.
In the beginning, Melissa was not sure where to start. She was not sure how to establish that community around her and to improve her networking. However, she stepped out of her comfort zone, and attended lots of events over the next year, only to find that many events were a waste of time and money. People constantly were "selling to her". She wasn't attending the events to be sold too...she wanted relationships as a foundation for her business. There had to be a better way to learn and talk about business challenges.
NETWORKING STRATEGY
As her own boss, Melissa decided she needed a networking strategy so she set herself KPI's (Key Performance Indicators) for the next 90 days to focus on creating connections she needed.
She planned which events she attended based on who she wanted to meet, set herself a clear intention for why she was attending each event, recorded who se connected with and made sure she followed up and tracked the outcomes.
What did she gain from this approach?
Clarity
Clarifying what Melissa needed -whether a suppler, client, referrer or likeminded business friend, or knowledge, opportunities or collaboration helped to influence the events she chose.
Time Management
Allocating her time to no more than 3 events a month, allowed her to manage family, personal and professional life better. She attended events that suited her family commitments, meet her goals and were enjoyable. If networking was part of her life, being in a community of like-minded business professionals she could form ongoing relationships, but she made a decision that weekly breakfast meetings were too time consuming and rigid . Her key objective combined her needs for knowledge, connection and opportunities into one event.
Skill Development
Talking business, bouncing ideas around, being able to clearly articulate the difference she would make and learning from others on a similar business journey , she was able to demonstrate her expertise, have "real" conversations with authentic people and create know, like and trust and ultimately business opportunities.
Melissa heard about Your Time Matters events. Not only did they offer Business Strategy sessions, they also ran professional and effective events., both online and in person.
By attending YTM in particular, Melissa boosted her confidence and regularly had deeper conversations with other professionals prompted by the unique formats.
Now, YTM Business Connect and networking plays an important part in her business. As Melissa suggests "Think carefully about your reasons for attending events and how you maximise your networking investment, you can learn so much from genuine conversations with those that share their perspectives and experience. " .
If you would like to sharpen your skills, regularly expand your knowledge and combine business networking that offers much more than traditional business networking events check out our YTM Membership and benefits to our community HERE
You can also check out YTM events in the coming months or maybe need help in developing your Networking Strategy? Contact us TODAY!
