Early Stage Business Networking is ideal when you've just started your own company. It gives you the opportunity to get out of the office and meet other business people.
Benefits include:
- Expanding your horizons - the more people you know, the more chance you have of doing business.
- People know people - how many other people does everyone know? One hundred? This is the foundumental concept behind business networking.
- It's difficult to think when you're sat behind your desk - When you're sat at your desk you're in a certain mind set right? You tend to deal with what's coming at you. It helps to be somewhere else so that you can see your business in a different light.
So you're at your first business network. You're not quite sure what to do but you've been practising your pitch. The problem is your pitch is coming out all wooden. You feel like you're on a conveyer belt churning out line after line...
...Take a breath, relax and go with the flow
No-one wants to hear a wooden script. But your sentences will begin to flow better the more to speak to people. Just relax at business networking events and don't try to sell.
Listening skills
Developing your ability to listen to others is the best skill that will help to at early stage business networking events. If I am speaking to someone and I get the impression that they can't wait to hear we finish then I think that they aren't interested in me or my business.