Startups today are always looking for an edge in this competitive world. What if I told you that there was a key component to success that many startups tend to overlook? Networking! The business networking landscape can provide founders with valuable connections, new ideas, and potential partners to say a few. Startup founders like you need to take advantage of this resource because it has the power to help your company grow exponentially.
Networking is crucial to the success of any business. It gives the business owners an opportunity to find business partners or get feedback on their business ideas from other business professionals and in short promotes collaboration among the business community to ensure a boost in their business growth. Business networking is also a great way for entrepreneurs to get opinions from experts that might not otherwise be possible because of lack of resources and time. Building rapport is not just for peers or potential business partners but business leaders should keep in mind of the bigger picture of using it as an opportunity to interact with potential clients and vendors, which in turn can make or break a company. Businesses have no way of knowing who’s going to be interested in what they’re selling until they’ve meet people who fit those criteria for themselves. Walking into any business event alone is like trying to catch fish without bait; it’s just not worth the time spent fishing unless you know where your target audience will most likely hang out or how you can approach them.
When starting off with business networking as a newbie, it’s always great to start small by attending local networking events in your area and reaching out to people via business networking or social media platforms like LinkedIn, GrowNections etc. This will help you get comfortable with the process of meeting new people before investing too much time into bigger conferences that are more expensive to attend. Over time, you can start building a list of contacts and a plan of action for how to approach these events. It is important that you make networking an integral part of your startup plans because it can provide invaluable connections and help grow your company!
Here are the top five reasons why networking is so important for startup businesses:
- Networking helps you find new customers: Without an initial customer base, it can be difficult to get a business off the ground. Networking provides exposure to potential clients who otherwise may not have found your product or service on their own. Relationships with other people in your industry help generate opportunities outside of any company’s network as well (e.g., if you work at a digital marketing agency then meeting another person who works in the same field might provide insight into how things operate within different companies).
- Networking helps you find relevant business connections and partners: Business world is a cut-throat environment. It’s all about who you know and who knows you. Business networking is a great way to meet people with the same business goals as you. So, making relevant connections within the community or building on your business relationships could potentially be the missing link to your startup success: that well-connected business partner, that person with extensive business experience, those investors looking for the next big thing. You never know who you might run into or who may contact you. That business card in your back pocket may just be the next business breakthrough for your business.
- Networking gives access to professionals who’ve been there before —and know what pitfalls come next—during tough periods. Businesses need more than a visionary founder or two to make it. During the start-up phase, you may have an idea that could lead to success but also never see its potential if you don’t know how others overcame similar challenges in their businesses before (or are still fighting them now). Networking with the relevant audience in your domain might help you solve many business challenges just over a conversation and adopting the best practices that these experienced individuals in your network might have to share.
- Networking helps with brainstorming new ideas: Most entrepreneurs would probably say this is one of the most important benefits of networking, i.e. creative collaboration for innovation. Whether your business needs help coming up with new products or services, seeking out strategies on how to handle margins during rough periods, or just getting feedback about what people want from your company’s next product launch—networks can provide valuable insight into these situations and help you brainstorm those ideas with a like-minded community before you take any important and impactful decisions.
- Networking provides a sense of belonging and helps you feel more confident in yourself and helps build a supportive community around the business: Entrepreneurship can be a lonely experience because so many tasks have to be done internally while the business is built from scratch (e.g., developing marketing strategies, presenting your product at trade shows). For this reason, entrepreneurs need to find that feeling of camaraderie again by meeting new people or rekindling old relationships they may not see as often anymore due to their work schedules. Networking events or online platforms like GrowNections provide an opportunity for members to get out there and recharge themselves through interactions with relevant connections! This applies outside of just networking too: do you remember how refreshing it felt when you first met your best friend and felt like they were an extension of yourself? It’s something similar to that emotion but in the business sense. Networking helps build a supportive community around the business, which reduces feelings of isolation or loneliness. There are many benefits to networking for startup businesses but one may be as simple as being able to talk to someone who understands what it’s like going through a start-up experience at any given time in their life. A network can provide support during tough times by sharing understanding and empathy while also encouraging when needed.
To sum up, networking is one of the most important factor for startup businesses. It provides valuable connections to potential partners, customers and helps keep in touch with industry experts who can provide moral support and guidance as your company grows, and networking events or platforms can prove to be very vital are a great way to get feedback on your ideas or get insights on the business challenges you may be facing.
Post Covid-19 the business networking scene is bound to change, as one thing is for sure, people today can no longer fully bank on in-person meetings or networking events only. Though we all will love to go back to that pre-Covid era of unrestricted business networking events as soon as possible, but even in that scenario, the importance of having an online business network in place will become very important. It’s the convenience of networking from any location, the flexibility in timings/medium for connecting with someone or even the fact that online business networking opens a larger global audience for business professionals to connect with, will all play a major role in ensuring that the era of online business networking is here to stay and grow.
As online business networking gains prominence, most of you might be looking for a one-stop platform which is focused purely on “business networking” and creating a community of relevant connections that drive “collaborative growth”. A platform with highly curated audience, who provide their own value to the startup community, a platform driven by its AI engine to ensure you are connected with the people who matter to you the most. GrowNections is all that and much more.
If you have plans for expanding your business network and have relevant conversations that help you grow your business, and get all that done at the tip of your fingertips. It’s time to get you onboarded the GrowNections platform.
Download the app from App Store and Google Play.
It’s an invitation-only community, so if you haven’t been invited yet, then get your exclusive invite code here: https://grownections.com/get-your-invitation-code/ .
Co-Founder and COO – GrowNections (Product by Marketing Launch Team OÜ)
Sreya is the Co-Founder and COO of Marketing Launch Team OÜ – a Tallinn (Estonia) based a Tallinn (Estonia) based startup that has been pioneering in being the ultimate business growth launchpad for startups And small businesses. She is an entrepreneur with a data-driven mindset, on a mission to create impactful solutions that boost business growth for startups, small and medium scale businesses.
A challenge-seeking and knowledge-hungry researcher and data analyst (with M.Phil in Information Economics and specialization in Econometrics) with extensive experience with policy-oriented research projects for Government think-tanks and International organizations (John Hopkins, Kyoto University).
She is a travel buff and a foodie. In her free time, she loves exploring the latest analytical tools and sharing her learnings from the world of data analytics, business and brand experiences with peer communities across the globe.
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