Advantages and Disadvantages of Business Networking
I came across this article, Advantages and Disadvantages of Business Networking. It’s pretty long so here are a few key points that you might find interesting:
Business to business (b2b) networking is related to building business relationships and personal connections between business owners to generate a regular supply of new customers. By networking, you are developing a social network that you can leverage to gain business insights, increase your customer base, generate new business ideas, and more. It can be an effective marketing tool, but it has its advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages of Business Networking
Business networking has its advantages and can be a valuable and effective tool to expand your business through access to more knowledge, ideas, experiences, reviews, potential clients, and opportunities.
Access to More Knowledge
Each business owner has specific information required to operate his / her business. An auto mechanic must know how to fix cars. An insurance agent must know about insurance. Also, each person has different insights and perspectives. Meeting with a wide variety of individuals with expertise in specific areas helps give you more knowledge. Ask them questions. Find the best practices for each field. Learn from those who are doing.
Access to More Ideas
If one business owner has five good business ideas, how many different business ideas would twenty have? A business idea could be the best practices for human resources or marketing. It could be ideas for new startup businesses. Business networking offers you the opportunity to bounce ideas off other people. Most ideas may not ever gain any momentum, but once in a while, a great idea comes along that has potential.
Disadvantages of Business Networking
Business networking has its disadvantages. There are situations and occasions in which b2b networking can actually decrease the value of a business.
Too Many Business Connections
As you network, you meet with more people. Many of them offer similar products and services to others in your network. Real estate agents, insurance agents, medical professionals, financial planners, etc. Many provide similar services to each other. You cannot provide leads to ten different real estate agents. How do you decide which one to give the lead to? If you provide it to one, the others may get upset. As your business network grows, you will be faced with this dilemma.
Too Many Resources
Business networking requires time and money. You need to meet with people in order to generate business. Sometimes these meetings cost money. They definitely cost time. The more you network, the more time and money you spend. There comes a point where too much networking drives down the value of your business because you are not spending the time, money, and energy required to maintain it.
Find the full article here and don’t hesitate to discuss your thoughts with me. Please feel free to contact me on 0467 749 378 or email at [email protected] for any thoughts and perspectives.
Thanks,
Robert