Reducing the cost of business networking
A colleague recently commented on how expensive networking was becoming for her. It’s true — networking for business can quickly become costly, both in terms of time and money, if you limit your “networking” to business mixers only. Or if you’re not focused.
I know, because I’ve been there — on both counts!
During my first year in business, I spent a lot of time and money attending all kinds of events. And I was coming home from these events disappointed and empty-handed, not to mention exhausted.
I told myself I was checking out all the different groups, to see which one I wanted to attend on a regular basis.
But in retrospect, I realized that this wasn’t fully true. For instance, was I really clear about how I would choose which events to attend regularly? On what would I base this decision?
I hadn’t really thought that far ahead. I was figuring it out as I went along. It worked out OK in the end — but essentially, I took the long route to my destination.
Is there another way?
Well, yes. These days, I use the following questions to make my choices and decisions:
- Whom do I want to meet? Why do I want to meet these people? In other words, am I only going to be looking for prospective clients/customers when I attend networking events? Or might I have other objectives as well (like looking for referral sources)? This is important, since my potential clients may attend one kind of event and my potential referral sources another.
- Assuming I do meet the kinds of people I want to, what exactly do I want to from them? An agreement to talk with me further at a later time, in person or otherwise? An agreement to send me information that I need for my business? An agreement to accept and review some information from me? Something else? This allows me to focus my conversations.
- If I’m unable to attend organized events to meet the people I want to, how else might I be able to meet them? Whom do I know, who can help me figure this out, if I don’t have any ideas myself?
I rarely attend networking “events” these days, primarily due to life with our 2-year old. (My time, if it ever was mine, is definitely no longer mine!)
Instead, my networking these days is integrated into everything I do, and happens during the course of a normal day. Which means that I save time, money and energy.
And when I do attend networking events, I always have a clear agenda as to what I want to accomplish. Sometimes, I just want to socialize, after having worked alone all day! No matter what my agenda is, simply being clear about what it is helps me make the most of my resources.
By the way, if you want more guidance on this or related topic, click here.
