Networking 101
Networking: Why and How | SWOT Analysis |
Business networking is the way in which business people establish a mutually beneficial relationship with other business people and potential clients and/or customers. The purpose of networking is to increase revenue by exchanging business information, ideas, and support. Listening to your client/customer and focusing on how you can help them is the first step in establishing a mutually benenficial relationship.
Networking: Why and How
Presented by Stacy Holland of Spherion
Networking Takes Time. Remember the earth wasn't built in a day and networking takes time. It's perfectly understandable that you're eager to make contacts but don't become over anxious. Finding quality people that you can successfully network with, takes time and finding quality leads takes even longer. But if you stick to it, set goals for yourself and stay on track, you can sucessfully accomplish your goals.
Don't be too selective with whom you network. I'm not saying that you should network with every single person that you meet. But you need to realize that all kinds of people can help you during your business lead development. For example, make yourself a list of people who you might be able to help. The key here is to make your list exhaustive as you possibly can. Once this list has begun to work and you are helping others, you should see a quick return on your investment of time and relationship building.
Networking is a proactive process. Remember that networking is proactive and you have to keep making contacts, taking part in activities and maintaining an upbeat personality. You can't simply sit in your office and wait for contacts to come to you. You have to go out and find them and ensure that they remember and think of you regularly. Therefore, it is totally appropriate to send follow up letters and other memorabilia to keep you in their minds.
Join as Many Activities as Possible. Another way that you can effectively network is to partake in interesting activities where you can meet people that share a common interest. Not only will you share a common interest with them but also you can make some valuable contacts. It doesn't mattter if you volunteer or attend events. The importance is that you get out there and meet people.
Never ever give up. Remember that you'll have some good days where you meet and network with lots of great contacts and other days when you don't meet anyone that can assist you. However, the important thing to remember is that you can and will be a sucessful net worker but you have to remain confident and never give up.
Prepare, prepare, prepare for the task at hand. Now before you panic, I'm not talking about spending hours and hours at the library or conducting in-depth company evaluations of potential leads, about the company and positions available.
Establish a Contact File. While networking you must keep good records. My advice is to use a standard business card file. Then every time you meet potential networking prospects you can indicate the date, time of meeting, their contact information, how you met/found them, who referred them, anything personal they mentioned during your conversation, as well as any salient points about your conversation that you would like to remember. It is very important to keep track of this file because you are developing long-term contacts.
SWOT Analysis
Presented by Dan Maciejewski of Swartz Contracting
What is a SWOT Analysis? It is a strategic planning method used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats involved in a project or in a business venture. It involves specifying the objective of the business venture or project and identifying the internal and external factors that are favourable and unfavourable to achieving that objective. The technique is credited to Albert Humphrey, who led a research project at Stanford University in the 1960s and 1970s using data from Fortune 500 companies.
Strategic Use: Orienting SWOT to An Objective. If SWOT analysis does not start with defining a desired end state or objective, it runs the risk of being useless. A SWOT analysis may be incorporated into the strategic planning model. An example of a strategic planning technique that incorporates an objective-driven SWOT analysis is SCAN analysis. Strategic Planning, including SWOT and SCAN analysis, has been the subject of much research.
Identification of SWOTs is essential because subsequent steps in the process of planning for achievement of the selected objective may be derived from the SWOTs.
First, the decision makers have to determine whether the objective is attainable, given the SWOTs. If the objective is NOT attainable a different objective must be selected and the process repeated.
Creative Use of SWOTs: Generating Strategies. If, on the other hand, the objective seems attainable, the SWOTs are used as inputs to the creative generation of possible strategies, by asking and answering each of the following four questions, many times:
- How can we Use each Strength?
- How can we Stop each Weakness?
- How can we Exploit each Opportunity?
- How can we Defend against each Threat?
Ideally a cross-functional team or a task force that represents a broad range of perspectives should carry out the SWOT analysis. For example, a SWOT team may include an accountant, a salesperson, an executive manager, an engineer, and an ombudsman.
Use of SWOT Analysis. The usefulness of SWOT analysis is not limited to profit-seeking organizations. SWOT analysis may be used in any decision-making situation when a desired end-state (objective) has been defined. Examples include: non-profit organizations, governmental units, and individuals. SWOT analysis may also be used in pre-crisis planning and preventive crisis management.
The information above came from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. To read more in depth on SWOT Analysis, click here.
