Personal Networking: Very Useful Business Tool

I guess many of us are paying more attention to business networking in recent times.

I had the opportunity to attend a Business Owners Networking event at the Dublin Chamber of Commerce on Friday morning last (2nd July).

It was a beautiful morning driving up to Dublin and people started arriving at the event before 7am. Many of the attendees obviously knew each other quite well.

Two points struck me:

1. How courteous very early morning drivers are! and,
2. How useful and valuable networking is to businesses, especially smaller businesses

I will leave the first point for any readers to contemplate at their own volition, but it’s great to experience. It’s also fertile ground for those of us who enjoy observing & considering the human condition. Moving on…

So what’s all the fuss about networking?

Isn’t my ‘old boy’s (or girl’s) network’ all I need?

The way I have always done business is the way I do business, why change?

Or, can’t we do all that instead on these new social media things like Facebook and LinkedIn?

Etc, etc, etc!

Here are a few of the plus-points of business networking as I see it:

great 2-way channel to promote one’s business without the ‘hard sell’
friendly, supportive atmosphere for business people
personal contact with many like-minded people
opportunity to develop, practice & deliver a clear statement of what one does
opportunity of quality referrals from network colleagues
participation, face-to-face, in a pool of diverse business skills and talents
access to a wide variety of very relevant ideas and advice

That’s just seven and one could go on and on, but just a few other points on networking in general.

In my opinion Internet-based social media such as LinkedIn & Facebook are excellent as a complement to, but not a replacement for personally meeting with and talking to customers and fellow-business people.

I think, with every respect to my rural roots (near Tinahely, south Co Wicklow), that the City guys & gals are miles ahead in the business networking stakes. And I don’t think it’s just to do with the size of Dublin, or the sheer volume of business and economic activity there compared with the rest of Ireland.

I still live in a small rural town (midlands now), which is great.

I have engaged in a few of the business networking events in the area. Much of it was very useful, but one could perhaps be forgiven for feeling there may not have been universal subscription to the spirit of networking as might broadly be accepted.

My own view is that business networking is something that remains to be fully & properly exploited by many businesses around here. The why’s & how’s might make interesting analysis, but it would be very worthwhile if objectively tackled, I’m sure.

So I feel there is a ways to go for many rural businesses to get with the networking program! But it’s their choice of course!

Finally, back to the Business Owners Network: I think the Dublin Chamber of Commerce Business Owners Network it is an excellent opportunity for business owners, and many thanks to Dublin Chamber of Commerce and David Wells of Acuity SOS IT Support (Chairman) for this.

I look forward to participating every second Friday morning.

Would welcome thoughts, experiences & opinions on business networking, thank you, appreciated.