Networking Insight

Find a Business Partner Through Your Network

Entrepreneurs need all types of relationships to build and grow a company. Many of these early relationships will come from an entrepreneur's own personal network. Relationships needed include employees, co-founders, investors, and business partners. 

While it can take time to form business partnerships, it is still worth the effort. Entrepreneurs should leverage their network to find these partnerships. They should ask certain people for referrals to potential partners. 

Business partners are instrumental for a company's growth. The key is to form strategic relationships that can ultimately lead to more sales. Business relationships could be for functional areas such as marketing sales, finance, HR, and operations. By building these types of relationships, entrepreneurs can fill in gaps that they are lacking in the core team. Usually, these partnerships are formed early on as a company is ramping up its business. As more and more sales come in, then a company will hire some of these positions. 

Business partners should still be vetted like any type of key relationship for a company. Get reference checks and evaluate three different people for each type of relationship. It is good to have choices and to have a backup. By being careful about who you with, you will be positioning your company for success. Take time to find the right business partners.

20 Words to Jump Start Your Business Relationships for the New Year

During the holidays at year end, you want to make sure that you are still focused on building business relationships early in the new year. Since holiday time is generally more relaxed, take the time to prepare and motivate yourself for the new year. Make the new year a great time to build up your network.

Below are 20 words to jump start the new year for your relationship building:

1. Customers
2. Revenue
3. Investors
4. Partnerships
5. Friends
6. Brand
7. Job
8. Strategy
9. Opportunity
10. Social
11. Connection
12. Mentorship
13. Event
14. Lunch
15. Coffee
16. Newsletter
17. Media
18. Invitation
19. Sponsor
20. Fun

What other words come to mind?

 

Reflect on Your Relationship Building Efforts This Past Year

At the end of each year, it is a good idea to reflect on what worked and what you can improve on with your relationship building. Once you evaluate your efforts, you can then put together a plan on action for the next year.

Here are some questions to ask yourself so you can begin your action plan:

1. Were you selective on which existing relationships you decided to build into stronger relationships?
2. Did you find ways to communicate on a regular basis with your network?
3. Did you focus on building a diverse network?
4. Did you find ways to meet new people?
5. Did you attend events on a regular basis? If so, did you come away with 1-2 quality relationships?
6. Did you cut down some of your activity and just focus on building up some quality relationships?
7. Did you regularly assist those in your network? Did they return the favor when you asked?
8. Did you distance yourself from people who were constant takers?
9. Did some of your business relationships turn into friendships?
10. Did you have fun building new relationships?

Take some time to reflect on your efforts so you can start the new year even stronger. Building relationships takes time and effort. Make sure that you spend it wisely to maximize your efforts

Networking Insight Turns Eleven!

Today, Networking Insight turned eleven! Thank you for your continued readership and support these past eleven years.
My goal for 2018 is write more blog posts. I am always looking for guest bloggers. So, if you want to write a post, contact me at [email protected].

It is a rewarding and enjoyable experience to share my thoughts on relationship building, networking, and personal branding. I hope that you find value from my posts.

I look forward to more years to come. Happy Networking