Are you attending all the networking events out there, continually handing out business cards, getting back to your office late, too tired to even think about following up with any of your new connections.
You make a nice pile of business cards, making a mental note to add the contact information to your ever growing data base, and then you head out again to yet another networking breakfast, lunch, dinner. Before you know it a new month is upon you and you have still not had time to follow up with anyone you connected with. Worse still you are behind with your work, your clients have been leaving you voice mails and you now have no more time to network, and you start to that networking is one big waste of time.
Stop! Before you do anything else make a plan, and stick to it. No one in their right mind can attend EVERY networking event out there, and it would be silly to even do that. Every business is operating at a different level, you could be a start-up, or a partnership, or a huge corporation, and even though meeting a diverse group of connections is beneficial, not all the seminars and information offered at networking events can relate to every type of business out there.
Not only will you be wasting your financial investment if there is a charge attached to the networking events you attend, you will be wasting your investment in your time, and time is money. Focus on doing so basic research into why you are networking, what your goals are, what kind of events do you enjoy, and also what budget do you have to spend on networking, whether the cost to join as a member or to attend events etc.
Once you have a plan you can move on and achieve results through effective networking that will stil leave you time to meet your clients, follow up, and all the other business related aspects you take care of.
Networking can lead to your success if you know what you are doing before you get burnt out trying to attend all the networking events out there.
If you want more information on this subject please feel free to contact me, LindaOJ, SBCN Co-Founder, by email linda@sbcncanada.org and I will be sure to reply within 24 hours.
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