Very often who you know is more important than what you know
Networking is an essential part of your career and business life. Put simply, there is no better way to advance your work prospects than through meeting and networking with other like-minded professionals.
Establishing a good network of contacts will help your career development in any number of ways, including providing job leads or other areas for personal advancement, training and improvement.
Concentrate on finding the right contacts
Whether you run a business or are just an employee, having a list of knowledgeable and respected contacts in your industry will go a long way to building your success and advancing your career. However, as the old saying goes, “Time is money,”so you should be selective about who you target when building a network of business associates.
While your business contacts may also later turn into friendships, it’s important to stay focused on getting to know individuals with whom you can form mutually-beneficial relationships.
Depending on your particular industry, your target list of contacts could include a huge variety of people ranging from professors to respected professionals already operating in your field.
As well as signing up to professional organizations specific to your industry, you should also join a networking group for entrepreneurs, to help build associations and expand your contact base quicker.
Sharing ideas and finding areas of common interest
A huge amount of new business is generated through the sharing of ideas. Discussing work with contacts in your network can often lead to the discovery of shared areas of operation where you might be able to help each other out or contribute in some way to a contact’s projects. Also, talkingwith like-minded professionals about complications in a job can sometimesresult in innovative problem-solving, perhaps through taking a completely different approach to problems.
Networking improves your visibility and builds your profile
Knowing the right people can go a very long way to opening the right doors to win business or advance your career prospects. Try to earn the attention and friendship of respected individuals and influencers already working in your industry.
You might find it surprising just how many of these people already know each other – although this is far from a coincidence. After all, success breeds success and people tend to gravitate to thosein the same social strata or that possessa similar intellectual level. Having associations with people at the top of your industry could help you break into entirely different social circles.
The path to bigger things
Once you’ve started being noticed and are socializing with the right people, you will quickly find it becomes easier to grow and move on to bigger things. If you look at any successful business person, you will find in pretty much all cases that their big break came from being in the right place at the right time– as well as knowing the right people to be able to take advantage of opportunities. Successful networking will expose you to increased work opportunities. You may even find other professionals willing to help you expand or provide financial backing or support.
In summary
Networking is an essential part of life and is the best way to increase development in both your personal and business life. Having a valuable list of contacts will open previously untapped opportunities while also improving your self-confidence and status. Additionally, networking can also lead to the formation of life-long friendships with likeminded people. Get started today!
Sunil Chandel
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