No matter what career path you intend to take, there’s no way that you can make it successfully to the top entirely alone. To set up a small business, you may need funding from other sources, or collaboration with larger, established brands to help make a name for yourself in the market. If you are a self-employed freelancer, you need to establish contacts who can call you in and provide you with regular work. If you’re in a regular employed position, you need to communicate with others effectively in order to make your way up the career ladder into more authoritative and better paid positions. This is why networking is necessary. Read on for absolutely everything you could possibly need to know on the subject!
What Actually Is Networking?
This is a contributed post. Please refer to my disclosure for more information.
Networking, in regards to business, is the simple act of communicating with other professionals and sharing information and contact details with them. Networking events allow you to mingle with others in an environment where both you and the other party can scope out how you can mutually benefit one another. It’s the main way to establish partnerships and collaborations that could potentially earn both individuals or companies a significant profit.
Things to Bring Along to Events
You don’t necessarily need any tangible objects when it comes to making a success of networking at any given event. After all, all of the emphasis lies in your ability to communicate with others. However, there are a couple of things that can help you to remember your encounters. Remember to take business cards along with you. This way, you can exchange contact details with other individuals who you want to keep in touch with easily. If you want to take things a step further, you could invest in an Alpha Card. This is a card which is the same size and shape as your average business card, but is actually a printed and folded product which can contain a whole lot more information besides your name, company name, phone number and email address.
Making the Most Out of Networking
Now, once you start networking, it may be tempting to share your details with every individual you come across. But the truth is that you need to be more selective with your choices to make the most out of networking. After all, trust and strong working relationships take time and energy to nurture and build. It would be impossible to invest this into every potential contact you come across. Perhaps more importantly, it would prove unprofitable and thus a waste of time and resources. So, rather than focusing on quantity at networking events, focus on the quality of the contacts that you make. Actually speak to people rather than handing out business cards indiscriminately. See who can benefit you and how you can help them in return.
As you can see, there’s a real technique to getting networking right. But with a little practice (and by following the above advice), you should get it down to a tee in next to no time!
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