Networking operates beautifully when you are in the right place at the right time. For example, you are an insurance broker and meet a web designer who has just found out they need professional indemnity insurance. You get along well, and before you know it you have a new client - a lifelong one if you do things right.
It would be great if that's how life worked. However, what is far more likely is that you are in the right place at the wrong time. That nice web designer you have just met? They got their PII sorted out last month. So what can you do?
The answer lies in the long-term connection that you can form with the web designer, or any other business person you meet. By building a relationship based on mutual trust, you lay the foundation for gaining his or her business at a later date. Not only this, but you have access to their whole circle of influence (that is to say, everybody that they know) in due course.
How big is the circle of influence of each person you meet networking? Obviously there is no set answer to this - some entrepreneurs have more social capital than others. (Social capital means not just how many people you know, but who you know). However, somebody who may not be otherwise powerful in business circles may still provide the one vital connection that could lead to your next biggest client. Say you are a financial adviser who wants to carve yourself out a niche working with property developers. The recently setup sole trader you meet who on first inspection does not seem to be able to provide any decent leads for your business may in fact be the brother-in-law of one of the biggest property developers in your area. You can see where this could lead…
It is these indirect connections that is one of the reasons that Business for Breakfast (BforB) is so powerful. Our greatest strength - long-term relationship building - is the answer to networking’s biggest hidden problem.
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