Anyone who knows us well will know we've built our solid client base largely thanks to our commitment to local business networking.
As long-standing members of both the Women in Business Network and the Athena Network over half of our client base has been gained from meeting like-minded business women at these monthly lunches.
It's not about 'ladies who lunch' - wine is not quaffed and we do not talk about our children or our next holiday - we discuss real business issues, we support each other and importantly we refer work to each other.
Many of the members are self employed and the meetings also therefore serve as a replacement 'team meeting' - working on your own can be isolating at times and networking unlocks a whole virtual team.
The reason I wanted to write about networking is because I have heard too many times sentences like this, "I'm cancelling my membership, I've been coming to the meetings for 5 months now and I still haven't got any work out of it."
Networking doesn't offer immediate, or even short term 'success' ….. it's all about getting to know people, getting to like people and getting to trust people. Would you hand over your accounts or your brand identity to a complete stranger in the street … of course not.
One of our most recent clients employed us to manage their social media and blog presence in its entirety in February - we are working on the important pre-launch phase of their new business venture and we are thrilled to be working with such an exciting new brand (we promise to share more once the launch is all set!)
We have known this business woman for almost 3 years - we met at a WIBN meeting and we have built up a 'know, like, trust' relationship that means working together is natural and easy.
This is networking …. working!
We're in it for the long haul - are you?
