Why young people need to start to network.

One of the most frequent things I get asked from many youngsters is how do you successfully network a room of business professionals and walk away having made a ton of useful connections and business links. Here below are my 5 key steps to networking and how it has helped me to get myself know in the business community. 

1) Have a strategy

Having a strategy is key to networking. You need to know why you are there, what you want to achieve from being there and most crucially who is going to be there. Many of us all lead very busy lives so it is important to not waste your time. Know beforehand if attending this particular event is gong to be beneficial for you. You need to have an action plan on what you want to get out of it. Maybe you want to land yourself a new contract or meet new people? Just make it worth your time because otherwise, you could be better off spending your time elsewhere on more important things for your business. 

2) Reach out beforehand

If you are taking yourself out of the workplace or attending a morning or evening event it would be wise to research on who is going to be there. Look at who the speakers are or check the delegate list beforehand. Once you've done that, reach out to them on all the social media channels that you can. Drop them a note on LinkedIn or tweet out to them. By doing this it makes it much easier for you to introduce yourself once at the event and it will only take up a couple of minutes of your time. 

3) Elevator Pitch

Have your elevator pitch at the ready. Being new to the business world it is crucial to grab the listeners attention straight away. Like you, they are more than likely there to make new awesome connections as well. So keep it short and punchy and get straight to the point. I always aim to get them pulling out their business card within the fist 20/30 seconds of meeting them. That way you know you've made them curious to find out more. 3 key points to cover in this are; who you are, what you do and why you love it. 

4) Follow Up

Follow ups are probably one of the most frequent things many people miss out and yet it's one of the most important things to maintaining your business connections. Just under 50% of people will only follow up once after meeting up with that particular person. As a result on average, only 3% sales are made. The more and more times you follow up the more they convert into sales. The theory goes, only 30% of people follow up twice resulting in 4% sales. 12% of people follow up three times resulting in 13% sales and only 10% of people will follow up more than 4 times resulting in over 80% worth of sales. This is because, during that time, your potential clients are beginning to build up the trust and loyalty so that they then have the confidence to buy into what you are offering. I like to call it polite persistence. 

5) Business Cards

Having good quality business cards are probably the final last touch to mastering the arts of networking. We’ve all come across those flimsy business cards that always end up scrunched up or thrown to the bottom of a wardrobe. Remember, when you are out networking you are representing your brand and professionalism, especially when you are a teen entrepreneur. Investing into this will help you in the long run as people will remember you and will more than likely hold onto it rather than a poor quality one. Whatever you do don't write your details on the back of a piece of paper, the chances are it's going to get thrown away.