There is something about face to face meetings that does more than any telephone call, any chat room, social networking site, television/radio advertisement and billboards could ever do. It is that personal factor that makes networking as valuable as it is today. While networking saves you days of searching for providers of services you need, similarly it has the same effect with people finding you – the more people you know and relate with, the more business opportunities you will discover.
I read somewhere, I can’t recall where, that networking is key to making your business visible. What better way to explain it. I call it the power of personal, which you can only get with meeting a person. People prefer to do business, and if they can they will choose to do business, with people not companies. The relationship factor.
The believe best thing about networking is that it goes beyond just that one event. A perfect example is a good friend of mine went to a networking event that I did not attend. While she was there she met an entrepreneur who sells flowers online (Maybe you have heard of it: www.maruwa.co.zw). She told me about it, and now whenever I think of flowers I automatically think of Maruwa because my friend recommended it. I have since recommended Maruwa to other friends of mine who have used the service as well.
This means people are choosing to use Maruwa not because of any advertisements or any marketing, but because they created a relationship at a networking event and used the power of personal. This is not the only benefit of networking but I believe that this alone is reason enough to attend networking events whenever you get an opportunity to go
Vongai C Mudzamba
Co-Founder Zimbabwe Entrepreneur Zone
Twitter: @vongzie
I am and always will be inspired to inspire.