Contact with like-minded individuals and development of friendships
One basic human need is to feel connected with like-minded individuals. By extending your contacts and getting to know them you’ll soon develop a network of people you will want to spend time with, share ideas with and learn from. One of the key benefits of business networking is that I’ve personally gained a number of really good friends I can now turn to even though initially the purpose was for business.
Generation of referrals /Increased business
Fact – 70% on average of all new business is gained through word of mouth and positive recommendation. As you develop your contacts and build up positive relationships with people you will find that you will naturally gain business and sales leads as people recommend your services. People like to pass business to those they know, like and trust. But this will only happen if you have a network of contacts in the first place.
I have been lucky to get many leads from people I have worked for. In fact, there is a client that has given me three other clients. As a freelancer who spends most of my time working alone, my only source of networking is mainly through my clients. You see, I am either working from my room or meeting a client over a project. I thus must network within my clients so that they are able to refer me to other potential clients. Definatley to be referred, one has to be very dependable and reliable.
Increased confidence
The more you network the more you get used to explaining what you do and how you can help others. Clear communication of how you can help is crucial to winning business and this will only improve the more you do.
Most of freelancers are always alone hence if you really dont network, you will even fail to explain what you do and why of all compnaies and other freelancers out there, a client should use your services. But if you keep explaining it as you network. You get better at it and man, you will just rock.
Raising your profile
Just by expanding your contacts you are raising your profile – people know you exist and know what you do and you will more likely to be thought of if your products or services are required. And which freelancer does not want a large profile of clients?
Free consultancy and advice
Yes I know we are freelancers and do all the work on our own blah blah blah but still once in a while we need to get some advice. We need to get an opinion and such opinions are easier gotten from the people we know. Since we spend many hours alone, having a colleague to offer advice to us is just right and a must. That why freelancers must always network to get contacts that they can consult.
Knowing who to turn to when you need help
The benefits of business networking are not just about generating sales leads and referrals. How much time have you wasted in the past trying to find the right person or business to solve a problem for you? Have you resorted to looking in the local telephone book for a service or plucked a name off the internet only to be disappointed with the product or service provided? By getting to know reliable contacts who can provide you with what you want or who can be trusted to recommend others is worth so much in terms of your time and money. And as freelancer, time is very crucial, its better to know someone who can solve your problem over the phone than spending a whole week on it and you dont solve it. Yes, such is our work, especially those coding.
Uncover new opportunities
You just ‘don’t know what you don’t know’. The same goes for business networking – you never know when a contact will be useful and will present you with new opportunities. If we restrict ourselves to our own narrow network of contacts we become comfortable and limit our ideas. As soon as we get to know others and become open minded to their ideas we suddenly open ourselves up to new possibilities, perhaps a new approach to doing something or even a new business venture which we may never otherwise have thought of.
As a freelancer, I am always pushed to do something better, to deliver something unique and most times, when pushed to the wall, I always look for new approaches, maybe they are not that new since someone somewhere must have done it.And thats when networking makes sense. A simple call to the right person can have your new approach completed and you will add one more happy client to your list of happy clients.
Satisfaction from helping others
Last but by no means least, one of the biggest advantages of networking in business is the increased capacity to help others. Have you ever thought just how good it feels when you have helped someone whether it is by saving them time and effort by providing them with a useful contact, passing someone a referral or directly giving someone a piece of useful advice? The benefits of business networking just keep on coming!
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