Doing business with family and friends has always been a sticky wicket.People worry that the business dealings will eventually sour the friendship or complicate the relationship. Sometimes it does. Most of the time it doesn’t. Still, we worry… Ironically, moving from a business relationship to a friendship is a very easy and natural thing to [read more]
In order to effectively network, you need people to introduce you to others in their network. This is how you can expand your sphere of influence – meeting and connecting with more new people, through the help of the people you already know. How can you make this happen? You need to think more like [read more]
The operative word in this week’s business networking tip is the word “go.” That is you must make the effort to go to events where you have the opportunity to mix and mingle with new people. Seeing other people and being seen by people is important part of business networking – which I define as [read more]
When networking, arriving “just in time” means that you might have missed a major networking opportunity. Arriving early to meetings, presentations and networking events can give you a unique opportunity to connect and converse with important people that otherwise you might have a difficult time meeting with. In networking, the early bird gets the worm. [read more]
Forgetting people’s names at a networking event can be embarrassing. The “in one ear and out the other” is a common ailment of most adults after being introduced to someone at a networking event. Without the help of name tags, it can be quite awkward to introduce the person you just met to someone else [read more]
We all have to master the art of the nudge because “nudging is necessary in networking.” When someone promises to help you out in networking (perhaps connecting you to someone else), they may need a gentle reminder to actually act on their promise and get it done. No one sets out to be unreliable, but [read more]
Who is in your active network? Could you list them by name, right now? Try this: without accessing your cell phone or other electronic device, think about the people who are in your daily life. Consider the people that you live next door to, work with, commute with, sit next to in class, see regularly [read more]
“Never Leave Home Without Them” This advertising slogan for American Express also applies to your business card. Too many business professionals make the mistake of leaving their home or office without their business card. You never know when you are going to make a new connection and want to exchange contact information. The business card [read more]
It is important to build your network both at work (e.g., colleagues, bosses, associates) and outside of the office (i.e., with people who work outside of your business). Your professional network must extend behind the four walls of your current employment. If you allow yourself to become too insular within your company, you are putting [read more]
