Aaron Bremner rocks and it was great spending time with him today and talking about ‘Networking’ and how I did it originally. Four times a week I say starting out!
Did I make up the statement “When starting out in business you should go networking four times a week?”
The short answer is “YES”, I did make it up.
However, I can assure you it wasn’t because I felt that “Four” was some magical number of cosmic tree-hugging spirituality. It was what I once did to build my business and it was also what many of my original colleagues did to go from $0 to $100,000+ per year income.
The people I know that started up and say did once per week, most didn’t make it – but the heavy networkers seemed to do really well and many are at my side today some years later.
If you are reading this article and say starting out, or maybe a bit “Flat” business wise and need to grow again, may I suggest you consider “Business Networking” as one of your key Marketing Strategies. For me and thousands I have known, it’s been brilliant in terms of taking people from being “Newbies” in the business community, to “Core” characters in just a few years who are known by hundreds and get near endless streams of quality referrals coming their way.
In terms of going back to the magic number of “Four Per Week”, I think if you are starting out this is a great number. My reasoning being:
1) You need traction as quickly as possible so you want to network as much as you can.
2) Hitting 4 x Networking Events per week is quite a stretch for many and doing more may be a bit of a “Burn Out” type of move.
3) Say 15 x Per Meeting, you get to meet 60 x people per week – enough for someone to hire you.
4) Let’s say you get 1 x Coffee Chat / Face to Face Meeting per Networking Event – that is a total of 8 x meetings you have per week now.
5) Try it and test for yourself.
The point more being here is that you can say start out with my rule of “Four Networking Events” per week and as you get more clients / get more busy with paid work, you can always scale them back over time. These days I do about 2 x Networking Events per week and that is pretty much all I can manage with my client and project workload.
My advice? If you are starting out / need a “Re-Birth” tons of Networking is a great move. Not just from a “Client Acquisition” perspective, but also it’s great from building your power group and personal development.
Thank you for the read and thank you to the Awesome Aaron Bremner and Lewis O’Brien inspiring me today to write this article!
About the Author obsessed with Business Networking:
Edward Zia nicknamed “The Crazy Persian” is a Marketing Mentor, 4Networking Leader and loves helping Small Businesses get more Profitable Clients with Awesome 6 and 7 Figure Sales & Marketing Strategies.
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