What sets an average company apart from an outstanding one? The answer lies in the ability to build strong and valuable business relationships. The modern business world places great emphasis on networking and effectively developing contacts in the professional environment. Today, it is one of the key factors determining a company’s success in an increasingly competitive reality. But what makes building a business contacts network so important for your company? How to do it effectively and reap tangible benefits? Read on in the article below!
Business Contacts and Contracts – When to Start Thinking about Networking?
In today’s reality, where the market is becoming increasingly competitive, finding your own niche and achieving business success requires much more than just developing a perfect product or service. Observing current trends carefully, it becomes obvious that in modern business, the importance of building strong contacts has significantly increased. Effective networking proves to be a key success factor for entrepreneurs. Therefore, whether you run your own business or work as a freelancer, you should start thinking about building a valuable business contacts network now.
Why Does Networking Play an Important Role in Business?
In today’s times, an important component of business success is not only what you know and what you offer but also who you know, what position you hold in the industry, and how recognizable you are in it. Building a strong business contacts network brings many benefits, providing an opportunity to:
- acquire potential customers and contracts – good business relationships can help in acquiring new clients. Recommendations are still one of the most effective promotional tools, and the fact that someone respected in the industry recommends your company or services can often bring better and faster results than marketing efforts;
- knowledge transfer – collaborating with other entrepreneurs is an opportunity to gain new perspectives, exchange experiences, and acquire new knowledge that is not available elsewhere;
- new business opportunities – an expanded business contacts network opens the door to new opportunities for company development, and collaborating with various partners can inspire the introduction of modern solutions, expanding the range of services, and thus achieving even greater success;
- improving the company’s image – industry recognition and activity in the business environment will undoubtedly strengthen your company’s image as a professional, trustworthy, and competent business partner.
The benefits of networking can still be multiplied, but alongside the question of why it is worth investing in it, another question should be asked: where to look for new contacts? One of the natural places that create ideal conditions for meeting other entrepreneurs and industry specialists is a coworking space. Working in a shared space is an opportunity for daily exchange of thoughts and gaining valuable know-how from the experiences of other companies, including those that have been on the market longer, have an established position, and a great reputation.
Building a Business Contacts Network – Where to Start?
Skillful networking and effective building of business contacts network may be a significant challenge at the beginning, especially for less experienced entrepreneurs unfamiliar with this area. Therefore, we suggest where to start to develop business relationships effectively.
Set goals and choose the right tools
Identifying the needs of the company and setting its goals is the first step towards effective building of business relationships. At the beginning, think about why you need networking: do you want to acquire new clients, find partners for cooperation, or maybe you are interested in developing your skills through direct contact with experts in the field?
How to Get Business Contacts?
As mentioned, acquiring business contacts is a key element of company and professional development. Here are a few effective strategies that will help you expand your business contacts network.
Business Breakfasts
Events such as business breakfasts are an excellent opportunity to establish new contacts and meet people from the industry. This type of entrepreneur meetings is organized in every major city. By participating in them, it is worth being open to conversation with other participants, showing interest and initiative – who knows, maybe the person you casually chat with over coffee today will soon become your client or business partner.
Networking in a Coworking Space
Networking in a coworking space is a unique opportunity to establish relationships with other employees, where daily interactions can turn into valuable business contacts. At Idea Place, we take great care to ensure that our coworking spaces are places of mutual inspiration, development, and continuous improvement of competencies through the exchange of knowledge and experiences. Over more than 12 years of our activity, we have repeatedly found that the time spent together in a coworking office naturally leads to establishing contacts, often resulting in interesting collaborations and projects that have their origins in Idea Place.
Industry Events
Industry events guarantee meeting people with similar goals and interests, as well as gaining knowledge from the best specialists in the field. Conferences, trade fairs, training sessions, or meetups – these are excellent places to meet key players in the industry, acquire new business contacts, and return to the company with new ideas for its development.
It is worth remembering that participating in industry events requires proper preparation. As an entrepreneur, make sure to prepare business cards so that interested individuals can easily contact you after the event. During the event itself, try to actively participate in panel discussions, networking lunches, or coffee breaks. All of this is an excellent opportunity to present yourself in the environment as a trustworthy professional and establish new business relationships – do not waste it.
Building a Business Contacts Network Using Social Media
In the era of ubiquitous internet and social media, building a business contacts network turns out to be much easier. Platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter not only allow you to contact people from the industry but also enable you to publish engaging content and participate in discussions related to the field in which you operate. Therefore, it is worth actively using social media to gradually build a position as an expert in the industry and establish valuable business contacts.
Finally, remember – building a business contacts network is a process that requires time and commitment. Regularity and consistency in networking activities will eventually bring results that have the potential to translate into the future development of your company.
If you want to effectively develop your business contacts network, the Idea Place coworking office is the place that will allow you to do so. Our coworking spaces create an inspiring work environment – by choosing Idea Place, you join a strong community of entrepreneurial and creative business people.
Ewa Rogoż
Ewa Rogoż is an experienced coworking pioneer in Wrocław and the founder of IdeaPlace – the first professional coworking space in Lower Silesia. Her dedication to business development and support for entrepreneurs led to the creation of an inspiring space in the heart of the city. Ewa not only creates coworking spaces for freelancers but also micro-offices for small teams, thereby supporting diverse business initiatives in the region.
