With the increase of entrepreneurs and SMEs in Singapore, there are numerous networking events by many organizations catered for working individuals but one may dread going for networking sessions because it’s usually after-work hours, time-consuming and may even be disruptive to their work schedule. To convince you why you should go out and network, read on to know why is it important and how to leads to your career success.
- Helping you start your own business
Starting your own business may be frightening and sometimes you may want to look for a partner or an investor to join you on this journey. When you’re at networking events, you get to meet potential partners that is already established in various fields and they may know of prospective investors too. In addition, you may be able to find people with professional skills that may be relevant to your business. For example, you may meet freelance accountants or designers that you would probably need as part of your business.
- Investing in a long-term investment
Even if you’re not looking for business partners, networking will help you meet like-minded individuals that may have similar views on career goals, life aspirations, and etc. They might not be able to help you in your business now, but they might be of help in future. When you’re part of a network, it opens doors to other opportunities, such as having a chance to be a member of a joint hedge fund or invitations to exclusive events. It also includes other advantages such as collaboration opportunities, expanding your contacts and debates that may be helpful in the area of your expertise.
- Exchanging Ideas
Sure there are courses, workshops and further education that may help you upgrade your skills in your fields, but there is an easier way to attain valuable up-to-date information – through networking. Meeting other professionals in networking events will help widen your knowledge through sharing experiences, stories and ideas with each other, which is something you can’t really do with a friend or colleague. Not only can you learn new information from other professionals in your industry, you may also help someone else with your own ideas and experience too.
Once you obtain new ideas, you’re able to find ways to improve the practices in your company and may even be able to increase productivity levels. Also, it ensures that you stay relevant with the changes that is happening in the industry so that you can continue to have a competitive edge in your career and stay employed. You may also get professional advice and assistance for problems that you’re facing in your career or business in networking events, along with real-life experiences and explanations to authenticate that certain solutions have worked before and would most likely work for your business as well.
Even though you may think that you’re experienced in your field, it might not mean that you know everything in your industry. We have to understand that change is inevitable and there’s always something new to learn. Networking allows you to meet others who are in similar fields and bring up unique information that you may not know.
- Building Connections
It is vital for every business owner to build and maintain reliable connections. You never know when you may need their help or if they need yours. Besides that, since you’ll be able to meet people of shared interests and goals during networking events, you will have a better success rate at scoring that meeting with their company, because people want to work with people they know and like. This can be done through referrals too, as people will recommend people or companies if suitable opportunities arise.
As the saying goes – it is better to have one more friend than an enemy. It will be no surprise that you might meet your competitors during such events but what you can make of it is to use this chance to get to know more about them so that you can help each other in times of need since both of you cater to the same type of consumers instead of constantly competing against each other.
Tip: Remember to follow up!
After a whole night of exchanging name cards, many professionals tend to ignore the last step of networking – following up. Following up is significant to ensure that the connection built during the event is not lost and you’ll be able to stay in contact. This can be as easy as sending a LinkedIn request with a short message reminding them who you are. The time invested in networking with someone new may not benefit your business development if you fail to follow up after the event.
Networking is the key to success in your business and upgrading yourself as a professional. It also helps to boost your confidence, widen your contacts and enhance your skills.
The H.E.R Network membership was launched for the Singapore market on-site to gather the network more regularly for workshops, LearnXNetwork sessions and the yearly summits from 2019.
According to Baikowitz, “the worst networking mistake you can make is not trying at all.”. If you’re interested to join a networking event, join us at the next networking session on 16 January 2019. Tickets can be found at https://heranniversary2019.peatix.com/
We also encourage young entrepreneurs to attend networking events to learn from more experienced entrepreneurs and build useful connections for them that may help them in future.
For inquiry on membership or any other queries, do contact us at [email protected].