Being in a position where you have no network is like not having a safety net. There's nobody there to catch you if you fall. The early stages of networking are like building a safety net. These are the critical relationships where if you misstep or faulter you have a support structure to help you get back up on your feet and moving in the right direction again. This comes through friendships, mentors and other meaningful networking relationships with people who care about you.

If you're serious about networking then the safety net is just the start. The smart ones among us build that safety net long before they need it. Sadly many realize they should have been networking and building their own safety net after they've already fallen, and it's too late. Most frequently this happens in a layoff or other job loss situation. If you've been building relationships in and around your industry then it's easy to bounce back. If not it generally takes significantly longer to climb back up to where you were.

Over time as your continue to strengthen your safety net through deeper more meaningful and broad based relationships your net not only grows stronger, but begins to develop some bounce to it. It's at this point that your network isn't there just to protect you from whatever life throws your way. Now it's creating opportunities.

Before the networking safety net was built a fall resulted in a major set back, not to mention some major bumps and bruises. Now the strength of your safety net more resembles a trampoline. You're able to use it to gain alititude and move to the next level through promotions, increased sales or upward job transfers.

If your network is weak start building your safety net today. You never know when you'll need it, but work hard to strengthen that network and you'll quickly find it will take you to new heights.

Happy Networking!

Scott Ingram

www.NetworkInAustin.com

I'm not quite religious, but pretty regular about sending hand written thank you notes. Most frequently I'll do this after a first face to face meeting, but there are numerous other times I'll use as an excuse as well.

These thank you's are something I've done for years for a variety of reasons. I always thought there were powerful, but I couldn't always prove it.

Anecdotally I always thought they easily put me in the top 1%. In the past I frequently asked people how often they received thank you cards. For most it's a VERY rare event. In fact the one time that you would think it's almost obligatory to send a thank you note; after a job interview. The numbers are almost depressing. I've recently asked hiring managers I know how often they're getting thank you notes. The most common response I heard was: "rarely."

So the thank you note for me was just an easy way to stand out. Nobody else is doing it so it's easy to top the "everybody else." Plus it gives me another opportunity to put myself in front of somebody so that they'll remember me, like me, think of me, whatever. E-mail just isn't enough anymore. It doesn't require any real effort.

Recently the real proof in the pudding came. As part of my regular process I sent one of my hand written cards. Several days later I received the following e-mail from one of the executives I had met with:

Not to start an endless circle of "thank-you," "No, thank YOU," I must say that your note was the first hand-written thank-you note I have received in a business context in years. It is rare to see a hand-written note in this age of emails! You are to be commended for that gesture.

We look forward to receiving your proposal…

There you have it. Real proof that this stuff works. I'm sure it wasn't the only reason, but I also ended up getting their business in a very competitive situation.

Do you send cards? Were you aware that you could have this kind of an impact for $1.00 - $2.00 and two or three minutes of your time? If the averages I've seen hold true than I can almost guarantee you're NOT. Why not? Make it a part of your standard process to start sending hand written cards to new people you meet.

You can thank me later... preferably in a hand written card!

Happy Networking!

Scott Ingram

NetworkInAustin.com

P.S. If you meet with multiple people. Let's say you get a meeting with a CEO, CFO and HR Manager... Send cards to everyone individually! Each person is just as important as the other. Don't make the mistake of only sending a card to the person YOU perceive as being the most important. You wouldn't want to negate your efforts.

I just finished going back through all of the archives on my blog. Can you believe it's been almost 3 years since I started this blog? I sure can't. It amazes me how much has changed in that time.

The result of this dive through my blog history is a complete index of all of the relevant networking tips I've posted over the years. The list is pretty long and I think I'm getting really darned close to have over 100 of these very focused posts.

The best part about the index is that all of the titles are linked directly to that individual post. No longer do you have to dig through reams of archives and sort through posts about events that may have been current at the time. Now you can just click on and get directly to the meat.

Take your own networking to the next level. Find the most relevant tip for YOU!

Networking Tips

Happy Networking!

Scott Ingram

NetworkInAustin.com

If you're in search of the latest big, happening, FREE mixer in town you've just found it.

The next Austin LinkedIn Happy Hour is happening next Thursday, March 27th at J. Black's on West 6th Street.



Their last even was attended by nearly 400 people. If you were looking for an Austin tech heavy crowd you'll find it here.

The event runs from 5:30pm to 9pm. Hosted by Door64 and sponsored by HT Staffing and Intrinsity. This should be one heck of an event. Enjoy!

Happy Networking!

Scott Ingram

NetworkInAustin.com

If you don't already have an established network and you need sales right away, putting all of your eggs in the networking basket is going to leave you very disappointed (broke?).

Networking is a long-term business development strategy. In many cases that flood of referrals you're looking for is years away.

I don't share this to discourage you, but to inject some reality. I truly believe that relationship marketing is one of the most powerful strategies out there, but it's like an investment that you put just a little bit of money into a couple of times a week. After the first week there probably won't be enough in there for you to retire. But, over time with consistent deposits and compounding you'll be amazed at your balance.

I think many people start networking to grow their business because their afraid of sales. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and pick-up the phone. There's no faster way to immediately generate sales, unless of course you already have an established network who can help with some referrals and introductions.

The real difference is in the lasting effects...

If you pick up the phone and consistently make cold calls several times a week for 6 months I guarantee you'll make some sales, or depending on your business at least start buildling a very good pipeline.

If you consistently start working to build your network several times a week, after 6 months if you're networking effectively you should start generating some sales and building a referral pipeline.

In the short-term cold calling will wildly outpace the results of your networking efforts. But what if you completely stop doing both?

Your cold calling efforts will immediately stop producing results.

Your networking efforts will most likey continue to produce results.

Relationships don't die, and it's tough to build relationships making cold calls.

The right approach is a balanced approach. If you're just starting out you're going to need to start focusing on things that are going to produce revenue immediately. That balance might be 90/10 or 80/20 cold calling vs. networking. Over time as your network grows, your relationships deepen and the referrals beging to flow you'll be able to turn the equation over to 10/90 or 20/80 cold calls to networking.

Just don't expect it to happen overnight. Keep networking, but don't be afraid to pick up the phone.

Happy Networking!

Scott Ingram

NetworkInAustin.com

Today I had a really fun experience. I called one of the smartest most well connected bankers I know to connect him with another friend who could benefit from his expertise. As we were catching up on what was going on in our own lives I quickly realized he was in a position to help me with one of my own challenges. This was not the intent of my call at all, nor had I even considered the possibility.

Every now and then the return on your networking investment is immediate and more than you expect. Had I not tried to help my friend I never would have known this resource existed.

You never know how helping someone else will help you in return. Rarely is it immediate, nor does it come back in the way you expect it to... But it does come back, usually with interest!

Happy Networking!

Scott Ingram

NetworkInAustin.com

I'm excited to be back blogging again. Being a blogger, especially about a specific topic, has a really interesting way of changing your perspective. It makes you much more aware of that topic and how things relate to it. Just in the last week I've made a list of nearly a dozen different things I'd like to write about based on things I saw, conversations I had, or other events I experienced.

However this topic of the dead blog is prettty interesting. I tried to do a little research this mornings and nobody seems to agree, but it is believed that there are over 100 Million Blogs! Unfortunately some huge percentage of those blogs are likely dead. (How Many Blogs Are There? Is Someone Still Counting?). I'll define a dead blog as one that hasn't had a post in over 30 days. Of course many are much worse than that.

In the past when I was blogging much more consistently and also speaking about business blogging I would often warn people that the most important thing to think about if they wanted to start a blog was how committed they were to it. Starting a blog is easy, continuing to blog consistently over time is the hard part. What I didn't know then was: For how long? Life changes, circumstances change, we change. So how do you gracefully stop blogging. (Hint: don't do it the way I did).

Knowing what I know now I think the best way to end a blog, or to take a blog break is to have some type of final post that explains the status of the blog. Without that all of the posts you've worked so hard on can lose a lot of credibility when all of a sudden your blog just ends at some date that was months or even years earlier with no explanation.

To combat this in the future, and just to have it in general, I've decided to create a Best of My Blog post. In this post I'll simply have a list of what I believe are my most relevant posts, their title and a link directly to that post. So far I've been amazed at how much I've written about networking in the last few years. That way if I choose to take a break again in the future I'll be armed with a way to quickly add value and then will only need to write a quick explanation as to why I've chosen to not blog for a period of time or permanently.

Well, enough about all of this blog talk, it's time to get back on topic.  Stay tuned for more business networking tips and insights.

Happy Networking!

Scott Ingram

NetworkInAustin.com