What is the mantra for success of your business? Introducing new products? Big ad campaigns? Networking? No. It’s relationships!
Networking sounds like wiring. And many people network like wiring – they make it messy
and they want to extract something out of it.
Networking is not exchanging business cards! It’s about connecting with people. That is how you can help them. Darcy Rezac (in the book “The frog and the prince”) defines it as “discovering what you can do for someone else.” (Source: Guy Kawasaki’s The Art of Schmoozing)
Relationships are about Caring for Others
Just today, I heard this podcast (Jackie Speier, Former State Senator and Deborah Stephens, Center for Innovative Leadership at Stanford) where Deborah talked about relationships and she said, “I don’t think we have to network. We have to build Relationships. Relationships are about caring about someone.” And caring is reflected in how we listen to people, and how much we help others, how much you want to meet people, and how much time can you spare for others just to help. And you have a ton of such opportunities in business.
Wonders Relationships Do to Small Businesses
I cannot think of p2w2 without relationships. Every step we have taken until now was made possible because we had someone who helped us along the way.
Relationships are so important – they help you reach a higher orbit. You get new opportunities because someone knows you. They help you keep your business in a tough economy. They help you in hiring, financing your company (friends and family are the biggest and the first source of financing small businesses), in purchasing (you know deals before others!), and of course in selling (referrals). Relationships could be the essence of building a business.
If you have great relationships, you can survive the biggest challenges in the market, competition or otherwise.
So how would you network? err.. build relationships?
About the author: Chaitanya Sagar is the Co-Founder and CEO of p2w2, an online marketplace for services like writing, software, graphic design, virtual assistance, business consulting and research. He is fascinated by entrepreneurship and the difference technology can make in people’s lives. Chaitanya blogs at p2w2 blog (RSS) and tweets at www.twitter.com/Chaitanya.
I agree. Building relationship in the blogosphere is very important. In fact a lot of good things evolve from such relationships. So growing your business and bringing your blog to another level of success all depends on how well you have built a network of friends and partners.
Peter Lee
Peter, you touched on a good topic. Online relationship building is very important too and often a determinant of success of a blog/website.
This is an excellent article. To the point and 100% true. I really appreciate folks such as yourself who take the time to write these articles for the rest of us. Bravo!
thats really a nice article, and for sure without strong relations its tough to conduct business in this highly competitive world. relations start with i like your face and you like mine….. but the changing world offers a better way even without seeing our faces… and thanks to internet ….
PC, well said. That tells me that I should write on networking in the online world too!
Chaitanya…. these online relationships can become stronger when everyone feels committed and takes the ownership… the prime goal to make people participate and enjoy… for which we need to focus of something niche and interesting for people to join hands and make it big for everyone……
PC, I am not sure what you have in mind but I was focusing on one-on-one relationships for small businesses, with their customers, suppliers, etc. more than a website’s relation with it’s viewers.
thats what even i do have in my mind…. to focus on small businesses, we need solutions which will fit to their pockets…. and one single approach takes us away from competition…. hope you are getting it right…. for us to have a bigger pie we gotta to be flexible and adapt ourselves to the requirements… which can happen only when we develop strong relationships…….. NOT only with clients but also with the external world…. who can contribute… to the success.
Absolutely PC. I would really love to know your name. Thanks for all the comments. I appreciate your points of view. Keep coming back! Would love to have you comment on p2w2 blog regularly.
Chaitanya , … developing a network of “good people” will help in building strong relationships which will help small time businessmen to be sucessful. So , need is … “good people”.
Chaitanya…. i am Poorna Chandra Rao working as a Sr. Project Manager….. and the catch is GOOD PEOPLE as bhoomicka mentioned…. is really required at this hour to make a difference in the market place…….