Tourism Festival Project/Business Contact/Using Personal Networks
| Learning Areas | |
|---|---|
| Tourism Jazz Festival Project | The Jazz Festival Project | Planning for Success |
| Interpersonal Skills | Interpersonal Skills | Personal Appearance | Communication | Teamwork |
| Business Contact | Using Personal Networks |
Using Personal Networks
Networking had been around forever in the business world. Business has always been based around who you know and getting known. You can't grow your business hiding in a cave and one of the best ways to get your name out there and get clients is to make connections with other people and build relationships. But, it's one thing to network, it's another to actually network effectively.
This is where most business owners miss the boat. They think that they can join their local Chamber of Commerce, go to a few meetings and pitch their products to the people in the room. Well this is the exact wrong thing to do. It's about building relationships.
We live and interact with people. People help, support, and reach out. They interfere, compete, and ignore. Relationships with people can make the road to our dreams easier and the load on shoulders lighter. People who know where we want to go and how hard we’re working to get there can be a most powerful force. Love, friendship, camaraderie, influence, credibility, trust, authenticity all add up to relationships.
A living network is more than a list of contacts or friends that we’ve exchanged cursory messages with. A true network is people who know us and people we trust with our reputation. If we choose them well, our network of influencers expands our knowledge and our reach exponentially further and deeper simultaneously.
Networks like that take time to build and require attention. Two main qualities describe a network that is remarkably powerful.
- A remarkably powerful network is limited in size. Small is flexible and makes it easy to stay closely connected.
- A remarkably powerful network is varied in experience and expertise, but in agreement on high standards of quality in all things.
The world in general will caution you in many ways if you don't care enough about things that other people deem to be important.
Our society is full of strong-willed individuals who have no problem whatsoever believing that everyone else should also see things their way, and then attempting to "re-educate" anyone who isn't quite up to speed.
- If you don't take care of your health, there will always be someone there to give you a hard time about that.
- If you don't spend enough time with your family or your friends, there will surely be someone who is quick to lay judgment on you.
- If you don't have a steady job or a bright enough financial future, there will always be people who openly and/or discreetly look down their noses at you.
- If you fail to do enough for other people or for your community, someone will always be happy to attempt to lay a guilt trip on you for your lack of participation.
The simple truth of the matter is that you owe allegiance to no person or ideal other than yourself!
