Business Networking

[mjstrand]

At a local entrepreneur networking meeting last night, several topics were covered on how to network. Here are some of the high points:

• *The amount that networking increases your business depends on your business type and whether the people around you are potential customers
  *All networking can be valuable - if not for customers, then potentially for suppliers or employees
  *Doing the right thing for customers may not always be the best for short term profitability, but can help your future business with that customer and may gain new customers
  *An interesting way to get referrals is to ask customers for testimonials and since most people are busy, write one for them to edit and approve
  *Stay in touch with customers via many ways including birthday cards, emails, phone calls, thank you notes and possibly even gifts that are local to your area. In Wisconsin, cheese baskets are an interesting choice.

If anyone has other ways that have worked well for networking, please post a comment!