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Cape Town - Building relationships with the right individuals is key to the success of a business, due to the long lasting and powerful effect a favourable relationship can bring about, according to Gugu Mjadu, executive general manager of Business Partners.
According to Mjadu networking is one of the most useful ways for start-ups to build a business and increase their profile in their respective industries.
Mjadu explained that for the self-employed, building long-lasting business relationships and partnerships is significantly more important than what most business owners believe.
“When starting a new business, it can often feel like you have no time for anything, but entrepreneurs need to take a long-term approach and invest in networking and researching groups that might be relevant to their business," said Mjadu.
"The strengthening of these relationships will potentially result in direct business referrals, as well as create a sustainable support network.”
She said that creating channels to share business know-how is critical in helping business owners succeed, and sharing business knowledge and experience contributes to the stability and growth of a growing SME.
“Ensure that you get involved with business councils and other networking groups, as you’ll be able to ‘mingle’ with others going through the same process as you," she said.
"Business owners may also find that fellow entrepreneurs can share valuable information on how they are going about building their business.”
She explained that as with other business activities, a strategy should be put in place for networking. It is a business process like any other, which should be attended to, but is often neglected.
Mjadu offered the following pointers to help business owners when it comes to networking activities:
* Approach networking for what it is
It is crucial business system like your accounting system, human resources system, or production system.
It means that you have to spend some time thinking about it, working on it and maintaining it.
* Define target groups
If you don’t, you’ll end up chasing your own tail.
How widely your net is thrown depends on the business.
* Networking only among industry peers is not wide enough
It is inadequate for a printer, for example, to limit his networking only to the local printers association.
Seek out clients and business opportunities upstream, downstream and adjacent to your sector.
* Start with a list of people who are in your network already
This could include your existing clients, suppliers and business associates.
Be sure to add new people or whole categories of people that you want to target.
This is just the start - a healthy business network has new contacts coming in all the time, as well as having old ones removed as their relevance fades.
* You don’t need the latest customer relationship management software
These tools can be handy, but if money is tight you can effectively manage a large network with an ordinary spreadsheet using simple categorisation tools such as colour coding to prioritise contacts.
* Relationships take time to develop and are built on genuine interest and mutual benefit
The key is regular contact, but it does not have to be monotonous.
Interactions can vary from a call to say thank you, to introducing a useful contact, sending an interesting article or referring a client.
Don’t leave these things to spontaneity - plan and schedule them.
* Clean up your contact list regularly
Do not only remove redundant entries, but reprioritising each contact so that you invest most of your time and energy in the most important ones.
* Internet-based social networking is important as a medium of contact
Be sure to maintain your presence on sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Linked-In as you would your appearance – neat and fresh.
But you don’t have to “hang around” there. True business networking happens face to face.
* Think carefully about your business networking calendar
Don’t waste your time attending events that yield little, but don’t be afraid to experiment to see which events work for you. Get out there!
- Fin24
According to Mjadu networking is one of the most useful ways for start-ups to build a business and increase their profile in their respective industries.
Mjadu explained that for the self-employed, building long-lasting business relationships and partnerships is significantly more important than what most business owners believe.
“When starting a new business, it can often feel like you have no time for anything, but entrepreneurs need to take a long-term approach and invest in networking and researching groups that might be relevant to their business," said Mjadu.
"The strengthening of these relationships will potentially result in direct business referrals, as well as create a sustainable support network.”
She said that creating channels to share business know-how is critical in helping business owners succeed, and sharing business knowledge and experience contributes to the stability and growth of a growing SME.
“Ensure that you get involved with business councils and other networking groups, as you’ll be able to ‘mingle’ with others going through the same process as you," she said.
"Business owners may also find that fellow entrepreneurs can share valuable information on how they are going about building their business.”
She explained that as with other business activities, a strategy should be put in place for networking. It is a business process like any other, which should be attended to, but is often neglected.
Mjadu offered the following pointers to help business owners when it comes to networking activities:
* Approach networking for what it is
It is crucial business system like your accounting system, human resources system, or production system.
It means that you have to spend some time thinking about it, working on it and maintaining it.
* Define target groups
If you don’t, you’ll end up chasing your own tail.
How widely your net is thrown depends on the business.
* Networking only among industry peers is not wide enough
It is inadequate for a printer, for example, to limit his networking only to the local printers association.
Seek out clients and business opportunities upstream, downstream and adjacent to your sector.
* Start with a list of people who are in your network already
This could include your existing clients, suppliers and business associates.
Be sure to add new people or whole categories of people that you want to target.
This is just the start - a healthy business network has new contacts coming in all the time, as well as having old ones removed as their relevance fades.
* You don’t need the latest customer relationship management software
These tools can be handy, but if money is tight you can effectively manage a large network with an ordinary spreadsheet using simple categorisation tools such as colour coding to prioritise contacts.
* Relationships take time to develop and are built on genuine interest and mutual benefit
The key is regular contact, but it does not have to be monotonous.
Interactions can vary from a call to say thank you, to introducing a useful contact, sending an interesting article or referring a client.
Don’t leave these things to spontaneity - plan and schedule them.
* Clean up your contact list regularly
Do not only remove redundant entries, but reprioritising each contact so that you invest most of your time and energy in the most important ones.
* Internet-based social networking is important as a medium of contact
Be sure to maintain your presence on sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Linked-In as you would your appearance – neat and fresh.
But you don’t have to “hang around” there. True business networking happens face to face.
* Think carefully about your business networking calendar
Don’t waste your time attending events that yield little, but don’t be afraid to experiment to see which events work for you. Get out there!
- Fin24
