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Plan to Succeed - The Art of Networking

Friday, January 30, 2015

Plan to Succeed

Upcoming Events

Be it in our business or personal life - Whether you love it or hate it, everyone needs to network.

Effective business networking links together individuals who through their relationship become walking, talking advertisements for each other. It is about being genuine and authentic - building trust, and seeing how your can help others.

Here are a few tips anyone can do to become a better networker:

Do something every day to build your network and make it a habit. The more you do it, the better you get at it. Connect with at least one person professionally every day. It could be following up with someone you already know or asking for an introduction from a mutual connection.

Become a connector. Think of two people who should know each other but don't and introduce them. Follow through to find out if the introduction was worthwhile in order to fine tune your introductions. People will begin to see you as a powerful resource and keep you visible to them,

Manage your expectations. Understand what you are there to do. You can expect different results from different events and don't always have to walk out of with 20-30 business cards. You can go to an event and make a great connection with just a couple of people. That's OK... One quality conversation can be more beneficial than 20 cursory ones.

Don't be a card spammer. The closest thing you can do to throwing all of your business card out of your car window while driving down I95 is to hand them out to anyone and everyone you meet without them asking. If you haven't built enough rapport with someone for them to ask for your card, don't offer one.

Our monthly networking events are yet another way to EXPERIENCE. BETTER. BUSINESS. Pick one from one of the upcoming events at the side or visit us at www.ftlchamber.com and Plan to SUCCEED!