Breakfast networking – worth getting out of bed for?
This entry was posted on Friday, February 13th, 2009 at 10:47 pm
Very early start this morning (5am) to get to a breakfast networking meeting at Warren House in Kingston upon Thames . I only live 15 minutes away but it takes longer and longer these days to look presentable – especially at 7 in the morning.
Still Business for Breakfast is worth it. It’s a great group of people with good, solid businesses and its very supportive too. When I was first invited as a guest it sounded like the kind of networking group I swore I would never join. I really didn’t get the idea of talking to the same people every other week. But I really enjoyed my first meeting and met someone who needed my copywriting services on that first visit.
We meet every two weeks and you don’t need a letter from your mum if you can’t make it. Of course we’re encouraged to introduce new members to the group and to make referrals but not in a pressured way.
I now absolutely understand the benefits of seeing the same people every fortnight. You get to build relationships and establish trust. It’s a dynamic group so we always have guests as well as regulars.
As well as making good contacts it has another very positive side for me. I hate doing 60 second pitches and get irrationally nervous. Having to do them on a regular basis really makes me think about what I’m saying. While keeping to my main message, I try to add something a little different each time to grab people’s attention. I also managed to do a reasonable 10 minute Spotlight presentation about my business a couple of months ago without fainting, having my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, or forgetting who or where I was, or that I was a copywriter.
Athena is another networking group that works well for me. It’s a women’s networking organisation and I belong to the Kingston group. We meet once a month for lunch at Warren House (I’m becoming a Warren House groupie but it is a fab venue). Like B4B, I find it very useful and supportive. I’ve met some lovely people as well. Athena gives a lot of support to its members, including Athena Connect, the organisation’s social networking site. There are workshops and teleseminars too.
So a great start to the day and a positive end to the week.
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