What makes a good business person great? Connections play a huge part.

The answer? Networking for success.

Once you start a business, it doesn’t take much research to discover that networking opportunities are all around you and if you’re a mum in business, they might just be right under your nose – in the school yard, or on the kindergarten committee, or at the childcare performance. If you don’t know what the parents of your children’s friends do for a living, now is a good time to find out. Imagine building your copywriting business because your child’s bestie turns out to have a mum who’s a website designer?

If your children play sport, those idle moments around the sausage sizzle stall can be a positive time for conversation that helps you understand who’s who in the parent group – and that might help your business grow.

Give To Gain

Networking isn’t just about taking, though. In fact, to make it work, it’s really the opposite.

Being that business person who can find the best solution for every possible problem has a lot to do with networking and the power of surrounding yourself with professional, unique people with specific skills sets that can benefit your own business – as well as the lives of others in your circle.

When you become the connector, you establish yourself as a person of knowledge, a problem-solver and a valuable person to have around.

To establish that reputation, first, you also need to be discerning. Passing on a referral to a valued client or colleague is a serious thing and if you pass on the name of a friend without knowing how they actually deliver their service, or whether they are actually good at what they do, you run the risk of damaging your own integrity and reputation.

Understand Your Value

In order to help others, it’s important to understand the value of what you do. How would you articulate your professional value in just a couple of sentences? The more concise and simple you can make the explanation, the more successful your networking will be.

Don’t Forget to Follow-Up

All the connections in the world are useless if you don’t act on them. If you’ve been given a lead or a referral, don’t forget about it. Failing to follow-up is a common mistake and can lose you opportunities that a simple phone call or quick email could turn into a brilliant new client relationship.