Networking

I think anyone who knows me will expect me to say yes and I will most certainly.

But it very rarely has an instant impact.

Networking has to be worked upon,  you have to build up a relationship with your fellow attendees.

If its a monthly event, attend monthly. You can't expect other business owners to recommend you if they only meet you infrequently can you? If its weekly then try to attend as much as possible.

Make sure you have plenty of business cards, people can't contact you if you haven't got your cards to hand out.

Also remember you are not necessarily selling to the people in the room it is probably going to be their contacts and its always best to be more interested than interesting so listen rather than dominate the conversation.

I remember going to an event and a business owner went round handing out leaflets and never once asked what other people in the room what they did. Everyone remembers that person, but would they use her services? Everyone said definitely not!