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Networking can be challenging. With countless groups, events, and conversations to navigate, making the most of every opportunity is a skill in itself.
At MSDUK, we bring together entrepreneurs from diverse industries and backgrounds through curated events designed to foster meaningful connections; the rest lies with you. But it can be intimidating. So here are 5 tips on how to make the most out of your network:
1. Be a True Networker and Connector
True networking is not just about meeting someone once and sending a LinkedIn connection. It’s about building and maintaining authentic relationships over time that benefit one another.
Keep in touch and offer to help them: offer to share each other’s opportunities, celebrate each other’s successes, attend events to show your support, and invite them to events. Over time, these connections will help create a strong foundation for your relationship.
Also, if you can introduce people who can benefit from one another, you’ll build a stronger rapport with multiple people. And if the connection turned out to be beneficial, your act will be remembered! Help others when you can as your actions won’t go unnoticed.
2. Look Around You
Whilst it’s good to meet new people and build a bigger network, we sometimes forget about the people we’ve already connected with. If you need a service or want an introduction, it’s good to reach out to people around you first before seeking new connections.
There may be someone in your network who already has what you need. Reaching out and nurturing your current network creates a foundation where you can build authentic relationships and find business.
3. Take advantage of events
When attending an event, virtual or in-person, engage and participate as much as possible: ask questions, make a comment, start a conversation during or after the event.
Attend as many events as possible, exhibit if you can or give a short talk. You’ll find people will come to you once you’ve made yourself known.
4. Open up your network
It’s tempting to interact with the same people within the same industry all of the time; however, this can narrow down your opportunities and limit your options. As Harvard sociologist Robert Putnam has written, you need a balance of both “bonding capital” and “bridging capital”, i.e., relationships based respectively on your commonalities (bonding) and relationships built across differences (bridging).
Within MSDUK, we have businesses from a range of industries. Diversifying your network could lead to new ideas and concepts. You’ll never know when you’ll need someone to help you with IT and software, corporate gifting or design.
5. Dive into collaboration
Offering to collaborate is an excellent way of building rapport. This can be in the form of working on a project together or holding a joint event in the community.
When you join MSDUK, you are not simply joining a network of suppliers and corporate buyers; you are joining a vast community of individuals who want to support one another.
We’ll help you navigate the network and make the most of it!
