by Hamish | Jul 28, 2014 | Networking
Business Networking is a vital part of business success. The relationships you create and foster now can have a huge influence on your future success – this could be whether you are looking for a job, trying to grow your own business through word of mouth marketing or even trying to get elected to a position – either as a politician or on to the Board of an organisation that you may be the member of. This article contains tips that would be useful in all of these situations but, because I am a business owner, the focus here is on business networking. The business networking tips mentioned below may seem basic but they do create the foundation for your success in networking. Check them out and embrace them. Make them everyday habits and I have no doubt that you will quite quickly see a great level of success. 1. Always carry business cards and make notes on others business cards – If you meet someone that you want to further develop a relationship with you need to ensure that you have a way for them to keep in touch with you. Here your business card is a vital tool. Further, when you collect their business card, make sure you make some notes on the card about where you met this person and something else of interest. As you increase your networking you will find that you start to collect a lot of business cards and it can be hard to keep track of who is who. The best way to do this is through notes. This can also...
by Hamish | Jul 11, 2014 | Networking
I’ve attended a lot of networking events in my time – including a lot of speed networking events. There are a number of advantages and disadvantages to them that I will outline below. I am an advocate of you visiting a speed networking event at least once but I want you to go in with your eyes open. As such, I will also share some tips below that I think may help you with preparation for success at such an event. Advantages of a Speed Networking Event Meet more people – Speed Networking Events are a great avenue to meet a lot of business professionals in a short amount of time. At a more casual mixer you might meet 4 or 5 people over a night (this is still great networking) but at a Speed Networking Event you can meet 20+ people in a short amount of time. Structured environment – The reason you get to meet so many people in a short amount of time at a Speed Networking Event is because of the structured environment that you get at a Speed Working Event. There are some slight differences in event structure but essentially it involves business people moving around the room, sitting down with a person and taking it in turns talking about their businesses before moving onto the next person. Practice and refine your elevator pitch – Because you are meeting so many people and telling them what you do you get the perfect chance to refine your answer to the question “So what do you do?” Give your limited time frames with each person, you...
by Hamish | Jul 4, 2014 | Networking
In May/ June 2014 I was lucky enough to be invited to participate in a Rotary International Group Study Exchange Program visiting Germany. I won’t bore you with the details of the program (you can find out more information here and I encourage any young professional aged 25-40 to enquire of their local club whether the program exists in your district and then you should apply. The chance to take a 4 week paid vacation in Germany notwithstanding (it wasn’t really a vacation but we got to see a lot of the sites) the educational and networking opportunities were phenomenal. Everyone must have leadership skills – The GSE Program I participated in in had a Team Leader appointed. He was older than the rest of us, a Rotarian and he spoke German. But as can happen on a tiring and taxing month away from home, especially when you have responsibilities back home, there were some days that he wasn’t at peak performance. On these days one of us (not always me) had to sometimes take up the slack and help get the team through whatever tasks were to be ahead of us that day. Everyone on the team had leadership skills – that’s why they were chosen – and developing these leadership skills is vital for anyone to be successful. Leadership skills are important to develop. These are skills that I like to think that I already have but they are certainly ones that I am continuing to work on. The importance of the team – This point goes hand in hand with the first point. Success doesn’t happen...
by Hamish | Feb 10, 2014 | Networking
Do you like networking, or are you one of those people who treat networking as an afterthought? If you think of networking more as an afterthought chances are you hate networking. You go to events and don’t feel like you are achieving anything. Chances are that you are not proactive and you don’t have a plan. This is ENTIRELY the wrong approach to take. No matter your position on the social scale, no matter how long you have been in business, networking is important for business and personal growth. To me, networking is key. Social Capital is much more important than economic capital. If you are doing networking wrong you need to change what you are doing. Concentrate on helping others – If you are not enjoying your networking chances are you are doing it wrong. Maybe you are going to events and handing out hundreds of business cards and trying to sell your product or service. This does not work. You need to change your approach. You need to start with an approach whereby you are helping others first. You should be seeking out opportunities to provide others with referrals and to help them grow their business Arrive early at events and offer to help – I am a member of BNI and one of the recommendations often mentioned by BNI Founder Ivan Misner is to adopt a host mentality at networking events. Get to an event early and scope the venue. Introduce yourself to the event managers and be helpful throughout the evening. Curry favour and ask for specific referrals – This is not an event specific...
by Hamish | Feb 7, 2014 | Networking
Networking is simple but it’s not easy. It’s netWORKING after all. If you want to be a successful networker you want to be the centre of your network. Being the centre of your network is an important stepping stone to business success through word of mouth referrals. The purpose of this article is to share with you the four tips to grow your network. These tips are the 4 things that all successful networkers know – initiative, intention, confidence and motivation. Make things happen – You can’t just sit on your backside and expect things to happen. You need to work your network. You need to help others in your network with referrals and introductions. If you put out there your help you will get help in return. It may not come from the same person but others will see that you are helpful and want to help you in return. Set goals and know what you are doing – If you don’t have a roadmap how do you know where you are going. You need to set goals. You need to set life goals, business goals and other goals. You also need to know what the goals are of others in your network so that you can help them achieve their goals. The more you help others try to achieve their goals the more likely they are to try and help you achieve your goals. Make sure you exude confidence – If you are not confident then you are unlikely to engender confidence in others, You need to position yourself as an expert in your field and you...
by Hamish | Feb 4, 2014 | Networking
Effective Networking means remembering people’s names! I’m pretty lousy with names (well I have been and I am constantly working on it as I know how important remembering names is. That’s what I love about BNI Meetings. Every member has a name tag to make visitors feel comfortable and every visitr is asked to wear a name tag so members can refer to them by name. There is something inherently comforting about hearing your own name and name tags obviously make the process of connecting and conversation more convenient. When developing relationships with new contacts, the first step is to learn and remember someone’s name (the only thing worse than forgetting someone’s name is to call them the wrong name.) Personally I would recommend that you get your own name badge made. You can get these done for under $10 but I have also outlined some tips to help you remember other people’s names if they are not wearing a name tag. Associate their name with what they do – Did you ever watch the TV show “Bob the Builder” when you were younger? Maybe you have children who enjoy this show now? Bob is associated with his career. So, he’s not just Bob. He’s Bob, the Builder. Try this on for size next time you meet someone – “Hi, what’s your name.” They may respond, “I am Catherine.” Your immediate follow up should be “And, what do you do?” “I’m an accountant” may be her next response. So, immediately she becomes known as Catherine the accountant in your mind. Repetition breeds familiarity – If someone is not wearing...
