As an entrepreneur you’ll come in contact with numerous other business people as you conduct your day to day operations. They could be lawyers, suppliers, customers or other business services providers. These individuals are important to your business in many ways. If they bought your product or service or if you hired them, you can also gain their business knowledge, experience, ideas, and advice if you stay connected to them. This is what networking is all about. Networking is when two or more different businesses stay in contact on a regular basis to help build and improve each others business.
Some of the benefits which can be gained by talking to other business people are:
Knowledge or information that you didn’t have before
Advice on how to solve a current business problem
Leads to a new business project or opportunity
Joint ventures and cross promotion deals
Learning important skills that you didn’t have before
Constructive criticism that improves your business
Brainstorming that sparks a profitable business idea
Encouragement and motivation for your projects
There are several ways to...