The Rule of Networking in our Business:
It's not WHAT you know, but rather WHO you know.

Professional networking is an important aspect of your career. Understanding basic professional etiquette, introduction etiquette and general social networking can go a long way towards your success.

In order to know where to begin, it‘s necesseraly to understand what networking is and why it is important to grow your business. Networking is simply talking to people, making connections and developing the growth of our circle of influence. Business networking is essentially the same, except that the primary objective is to help grow our businesses.

For the majority of us, to build a network means meeting people we can do business with or who will do business with us. It‘s a matter of fact, that some of the best networks are those created by people, who own and run their own businesses. When you create valuable networking relationships, you build them on a foundation of mutual trust, sharing knowledge, experiences and resources to help one another grow your businesses by either referring one another or doing business directly with one another.

In other words:

• Put a face to your business and to give your business a presence outside of it's physical place.
• Help grow your business through association with other business owners.

You could be the best Manager in the world but if no one knows about you or what you do, you may never be able to make it. It's imperative that people know who you are, and the more face to face recognition the better!

The idea is that If you sit back and you don't get involved, it's likely you will not be successful in the way you would like. It‘s critical to get yourself known to other people through getting involved- getting to know others, making constructive appearances to events where business people meet.
Rome wasn't built in a day and neither is a business. It takes time, the desire to succeed and the willingness to put yourself out there so people can get to know you.

With that said, don't be afraid of the word "networking". All it means is that you are going to let people know who you are and what you do, which is critical to succeeding in business today.

Good luck Networking and have fun with it!