In an effort to post helpful thoughts, here’s one: If you don’t belong to at least one networking group, you should, and even if you do, are you doing it right?
Networking groups, like Mastermind, BNI, Yellow-Tie, are there to help you grow your business, but I think that they work in different ways. Do you need customers/clients? Do you need help? Maybe you need both. In my experience, BNI is a good place to get new business. When I was a mortgage broker I got a lot of referral business from my BNI chapter, but not much help with running my business. Now, I’m in a Mastermind group. I get more help on running my business rather than leads, but that’s exactly what I need. What do you need?
If you’re in such a group, be active! It only works if you participate. You need to be proactive about getting together with the other members outside of the meetings. You need to prioritize courtesy with your group. If someone sends you a referral, always thank them, but especially those folks that you see every week. If you don’t, you get to be known as a “taker” and not a “giver”, and pretty soon, you don’t get any more help. Make it a habit when you meet someone new, particularly a new member of your group, to go out of your way to find out what you can do to help them, whether it’s business ideas or new business. Meet with them outside of the meetings and get to know them. That’s the only way they’ll want to get to know you and be thinking of you and what you can offer as they meet with other people. Because if you only meet them during the weekly or monthly meetings, the relationship takes a much longer time. Why wait?
Even if it doesn’t seem like it right now, “givers” do get.
