4 Networking Tips for a New Business Owner

When you first become an entrepreneur, family and friends become your first supporters. Your business will be built on your personal credibility and your personal story. This is why as an entrepreneur, it’s so important to lean into your personality and use the network of people who already care about you to get your new business off the ground. 

This article outlines the networking tips and strategies you will need in the beginning stages of growing your business.

1. Clarify your Brand and Purpose

Your brand is a signal of trust to potential customers of your business. It shows that you are established, you have a direction, and you are worthy of their investment. In order to win the networking game as a new business owner, it’s important to have an established brand. 

Along with the brand, you need a purpose that your business is working towards. The purpose is what is meaningful about what you are doing. It can be hard to connect to purpose when you are first starting out, so it all comes down to this initial question: How would the world be worse off if you didn’t exist? Once you can answer that question and speak with enthusiasm about what you are doing, you are ready to recruit support in your personal network.

2. Understand who you are, what you stand for, and where you are going

Unless you have a strong vision of who you want to be, there is a good chance that you aren’t going to become it. When you are starting a new business and you want other people to be on board with where you are going, you have to be able to articulate your goals, values, and purpose. So, understand where you currently are in relation to where you want to be.

3. Never stop growing and learning

Change is inevitable but growth is optional. Successful entrepreneurs are the ones that are always learning. And chances are, you have a lot of knowledge and insight that can be gained from tapping into your personal network. Reach out to your team for help and advice. Bounce ideas off them, ask them how they would approach certain solutions, and offer your own help in return. Networking is about professionals figuring out how they can help each other, and sometimes the best and easiest way to help (or be helped) is through teaching and learning.

4. Lots of people like to talk, but few people likes to listen

Entrepreneurs are problem-solvers. So entrepreneurs that spend all day talking about their vision without listening to the response are guaranteed to veer in the wrong direction. In a room full of people who are eager to talk about themselves and their upcoming projects, be the person who is there to listen and ask meaningful questions. This will not only make you more likeable and trustworthy to others, but it may also give you valuable insight into how your company should approach solving your customers’ problems. 

Great companies are not built by one person alone. Your founder story is going to have many characters besides yourself. So open yourself up to the people who are in your corner and be sure to acknowledge all the people who have supported you along the way.