posted by Andrew Hartley - Business Consultant & Entrepreneur on Feb 25
We’ve all been told how important a network is to our success. Once we’ve decided to “do something,” whether it be starting a new business or finding a new job or new career, having a good network becomes crucial to the ultimate success of that endeavor.
If you are starting a business, knowing people from many disciplines can be nothing but helpful to you; looking for advice on what business structure to use for your entrepreneurial idea? Perhaps you know (or know someone who knows) a good business lawyer. Looking to start an online business? Maybe you have a good friend who is a web-designer. Did you invent a better mousetrap? Who better to introduce it to the world than your brother-in-law who is a professional in sales.
If you’re looking for a new career/job, it’s good to know people who work in the industry you’re looking to enter. It’s good to know Human Resources professionals from your current job (or previous jobs) – they generally have connections in other HR departments at other companies or even general search firms. Maybe your old college roommate is a head-hunter now (or can give you the name and number of the headhunter who found her the great job she started a few months ago!)… the possibilities are endless.
But what is a network? What is social capital? Is your network your friends from high-school and college? Is it your professional acquaintances from work? Is it your social acquaintances from the dive bar where you sing karaoke on Wednesday nights? Or is it only the people you know who can actually help you in some way – people who have something you need and are willing to give it to you?
First of all, understand that everyone you know or have met is your network. Having said that, also understand that a network is absolutely not a one-way street. Once you have met someone, it is up to you to cultivate the relationship to ensure that your network continues to grow and does not begin to dry up and shrink. Because - let’s be honest here - your functional network is much smaller than your network as a whole. When you need something from your network, it’s your active contacts who are going to be willing and able to help you, not necessarily the guy who gave you his business card at that “How to deal with difficult people” seminar at the Mariott two years ago. Unless that guy happens to know or be related to someone you know well and talk to regularly.
Which brings me to my main point - maintaining an active, open, entrepreneurial network. Networking is not just meeting new people (although to keep a network growing you must meet new people once in awhile); it is also reconnecting with people you already know on a regular basis. For example: Marcie and Jamie work with you at your current job, and they used to eat lunch with you and others - sometimes one-on-one, sometimes as a larger group. But over time, they have begun to eat lunch by themselves, in their cubicles. Not so they can get more work done (which is no excuse anyway - if you can’t get your work done without skipping your lunch break, you either have too much work or a time-management issue), just alone. While one should never take no time for themselves, one should also not avoid cultivating the relationships built over time. Marcie and Jamie’s “social-capital” network is shrinking right before their eyes. Their former lunch partners are now wondering, “What did I do? Why is Marcie avoiding me?” They may even be saying, “If she always works through lunch, why doesn’t she get more done? Why do I still have to pick up the same slack I’ve always picked up?” Oops. This person certainly isn’t going to get the help they want and may need in the future from their network.
There’s a book called Never Eat Alone, by Keith Ferrazzi, which discusses the exact issue above. I’ve heard that it’s very good, and that Mr. Ferrazzi is considered one of the most connected people in the world. While I haven’t read the book, I bet I already know one of it’s main themes - take lunch with people in your network, and add more people to your network when you meet them at business dinners, office parties, etc. I plan on picking up this book from the library soon and getting everything I can out of it.
As a last thought before ending this (admittedly long) post, keep in mind that a network is not there only for you to get something from. It’s there for you to give as well. There is a long-known but not well-understood law of business and the universe - you get what you give. It seems nonsensical, but if you want to attract more money into your life, you should give more money away (not spend more money, but donate and tithe more money). If you want someone to help you, you must first help others (not necessarily the person whose help you want). It’s the pay-it-forward phenomenon, even more like karma, whether or not you want to believe it. When was the last time you gave someone a smile and didn’t get one back? A network is the same thing. You have to be willing to give before you can get - and you have be willing to not keep track of who owes you because you’ve done something for them. Let the cards fall where they may - ultimately, the universe provides and balances. Let it do what it does while you do what you can.
How do you tender your network? How has your network assisted you? Leave a comment and tell us!
If you are an entrepreneur, or even if you just go to very many seminars, you amass many business cards, of which there is no good way to organize and sort in such a way as to be able to find the information when you need it. Besides just throwing them all in a shoebox, I’ve tried those little plastic insert pages where you can insert 12 cards or so and then put them in a 3-ring binder. That works fairly well, but I don’t take the binder with me when I travel, so if I run into someone who could use one of my contact’s services, I have to make myself a note and hopefully remember what it was all about when I get back home, then dig through the binder to find the information, then type it all out in an e-mail and send it.
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