Networking is a vital part of your business, it can be the determining factor in your business landing contracts, funding or seeing growth.
Networking gives you additional eyes and ears in your market.
People who fail to network are drastically limiting the potential of their business.
I try to meet the owner of any business where I spend money. It’s a simple yet effective rule.
I’m friends with the owner of the bar that I have a lot of my meetings at, Café Shisha (Albahri) and when I go to the barbershop I get my haircut by the owner Jair (Cassanova’s).
I have built a network of business owners without doing anything outside of my normal daily activities.
The benefits of having a network of successful business associates are limitless.
Here’s a real life example, the largest account that my video production firm ever landed was a deal to produce a press kit for Vibe Magazine.
Through this project we were able to work with Vibe Magazine, QD3 Films, T.I., Mike Jones, T.J.’s D.J.’s and a host of other industry key holders.
I had nothing to do with landing this account. By the time I spoke with the marketing director at Vibe Magazine, the account was already mine; all I had to do was negotiate the price.
Here’s what happened, when Vibe realized they needed the project done they called one person on advice on who they should go to, that person was T.J. Chapman, CEO of T.J.’s D.J.’s. T.J. told them they should go to my company and that’s what they did.
The reason that T.J. told them to go with my company isn’t because we were the best video production company around, but I had developed a personal relationship with him.
T.J. is a fellow business owner who has had much success in his industry and he wants others to do well.
As a business associate, he is able to alert me of opportunities that I would have never known about.
When friends in my business network hear about someone who needs a product or service that I offer, they instinctively alert me and I do the same for them. They expect nothing from me and I expect nothing in return from them.
Do not limit your networking to people in your industry or target market!
Anybody that is successful in his or her respective field would be great to have in your network.
Most successful people know other successful people, most business owners know other business owners and most wealthy people know other wealthy people.
A friend of mine owns a gas station, he probably will never purchase a commercial from me, and he has there is no need for him to.
But he does have personal relationships with owners and managers of car dealerships; those dealerships are always in need of my services, and he’s a credible source to them, so when he tells them about my company they listen a lot more closely to him than they would listen to me.
Make a commitment to increase your network and I guarantee you will see amazing results.
Start with the people that are available to you and you will soon see your network grow.
You can build a network that benefits you by applying some of these strategies I have written. Your business will grow even faster when people start hearing about your products and services from someone besides you.