Many of you may not want to hear this, but networking is the most important part of starting a business. You can put as much hard work behind your projects as you can, but it won’t help you grow any more than going out there and talking to people. In my experience, the latter is actually what’s going to bring you more customers.
The thing is, you never know who you’re going to meet. You never know if the person you’re talking to is going to shrug your business away or be interested in helping you. Some may simply find your business so interesting that they will talk about it with other people and so on. Others might just have the contact you need to move your business to the next step. You simply never know.
And because you don’t know, you should be taking every opportunity available to talk about your business. Yes, it’s going to be awkward and you’re going to feel uncomfortable plugging your own work. But you have to be shameless and bold (in a nice kind way of course!).
Go to different events related to your business. Bring a friend if you need to, but once you’re there, be prepared to walk up to anyone and talk. Don’t worry about chatting to strangers, people know everyone is there to do networking! Be direct and confident. Networking is much more common than you think, nobody will think you’re self-absorbed or too pushy, so don’t worry about that.
Don’t be afraid to reach out to people on line as well. If you think someone would be interested to hear about your business, write to them. Worst case is they won’t reply. Or they might want to know more about it. Again, you never know.
Nobody is going to do the work for you. If you find people who will talk about your business for you, consider yourself very lucky. But most of us are already trying to grow our own business and do the networking for ourselves. Also, nobody will be able to talk about your ideas and your goals better than yourself.
Go out there and let everyone know about your business! I’m always here for advice and support!
Lots of love,
Vxx