Top networking tips for home workers

Today John Valentine, the founder of bizset networking who recently shared his views on networking for home workers, is back to help home workers get the best out of a networking event – and provide some examples of what not to do!

Hello again, John, what’s your top tip for getting the best from a networking event?
Turning up. If you don’t go you won’t get anything out of networking, if you do attend you never know the amazing opportunities and avenues that open up to you. I have experienced this first hand and witnessed it, yet so many people either don’t turn up when they say they would or cannot see the benefit in attending.

Also, I would say that being British we have an in built programme that says ‘don’t ask’ and to compound this reticence we are then ‘trained’ not to sell at networking events. At some point you have to explain what you do and if you get a flicker of interest you have to look to advance the conversation to a sale.

What’s your favourite conversation opener?
If you are in a position that you need a conversation opener you are not at a good networking event. I really think that it is the role of the organiser to make sure that people are introduced to each other so that they can be eased into a conversation, rather than try and think of an conversation opener.

Do you have any funny or cautionary tales about networking?
Take your pick – here are some of the most ridiculous things I have heard at a networking event.

1. ‘Hi I’m Bob, I’m an accountant and also a cleaner.’
It is fine to have two or more hats but don’t dilute your main offering by seeming desperate. So it’s great to say, ‘I’m a web designer and at weekends I have a photography business’ as this adds to your main job and makes you interesting; being a cleaner makes you look like a bad accountant.

2. ‘Hi I’m Bob, I’m an accountant I’m networking today because I’ve got no work on.’
Desperation is rarely attractive. If you only network when you have no work on, people only know you as desperate for work, so don’t advertise this at a networking event by only turning up when you aren’t busy.

3. ‘This networking group is great and has given me lots of business, but I’m not joining’.
Why? ‘Because it has a membership fee, I’d rather just go to free events’.
‘Do you get any work from those events’, response – ‘No, not really.’
Remember marketing is about ROI not about spending the least, if something makes more money than it costs to do, then do more of it, don’t replace it with a cheaper option that generates less profit.

4. ‘I’ve not got any business cards.’
If you are new in business and you are having them printed or looking for a good supplier it is fine to go to business networking events for a couple of weeks without business cards but after two weeks it starts to look unprofessional. And don’t tell me business cards are dead, they aren’t.

Thanks, John, I particularly like the bit about not needing a conversation opener – as I suspected, I have obviously been to some bad networking events!