Hampshire Sponsor Article

NETWORKING – A Waste of Time?

If there was something sure to be way outside of my comfort zone, it would be to walk into a room full of total strangers, all huddled together in groups and go round and introduce myself. I’m sure that is the same for nearly all of you.

If there was something sure to be way outside of my comfort zone, it would be to walk into a room full of total strangers, all huddled together in groups and go round and introduce myself. I’m sure that is the same for nearly all of you. 

Whenever I saw on an event listing “networking half hour”, I would be sure to arrive just as that period ended. It’s the stuff of nightmares, nervous small talk while balancing a cup and saucer.

So I can’t imagine why I decided to give networking a go a few years ago. But I am so glad that I did.

I opted to take one of the many free trial offers and try a national network of groups, hoping that a small, local collective would be welcoming and friendly. It is hard to find the right choice and I’ve experienced some that just weren’t for me.

At this first meeting I was so nervous and just thought, as I entered the room of strangers “get a coffee, something to eat and sit down quietly and assess the situation”. Not a bit of it, within 5 paces a friendly looking lady approached me, before I even got my second shot of caffeine for the day (never good). 

She was asking me what systems I used for processing orders (straight to the point, then). I told her proudly how we used MS Access, only for her to inform me, very politely that no-one used that any more.

I quickly realised that while Access was the thing to use in 1998 when I first needed such a system, things in IT move quickly and that I needed to “get out more”. Get out to business groups like this and keep myself upto date.

As it turned out, this lady updated me on the 20 years gap while I had been in my own little bubble. She subsequently came into our office and completely updated, improved and streamlined our systems, and we still use her now to help us to continue to evolve and progress.

That meeting made me realise just how easy it is to simply come up with a way of working, go away and implement it and use it for years without any perception of what others are doing and how things are changing and that better fits for you have evolved. I needed to get out of my “bubble”, I had no idea where this networking would lead, but I knew that I had to do it.

Without this awakening, I would never have received such fantastic expert help with my business, and made some great friends along the way. People at networking events ask me, in the politest way, why am I there? It’s not like I’m one of the obvious networkers who use the events to tout for business, such as life coaches and PR firms, I have never met a potential client at a network event.

So, why do I go, and is it worth it? Well, without networking I wouldn’t have had help with such things as marketing ideas including our HW cartoon for example, I wouldn’t have met someone who got us a major client through his cold calling expertise, or found training in social media, Canva and google.

I have used the same accountant now for many years since I met him at an event, and I’ve tried a couple of different HR firms before settling on one that I met through a group. I’ve met the man who took our website photographs, a car lease expert, and I love meeting and hearing the stories of the many fascinating small businesses, it’s like a local Dragons Den. 

I’ve also experienced some new venues, everything from the Boat Show, Solent Forts to football and cricket grounds.

When we came back to the office from lockdown, our printers needed replacing. I knew instantly who to call because of networking. It’s not just that I’d met someone who had a printer company, but I could see that he was very popular, a nice man and everyone seemed to trust him. 

“People buy from people” is so true. I have followed some people through 2/3 career moves, as I know them, not necessarily their firm. 

I like to run training events for our clients, and I’ve met expert speakers through networking and, when my IT provider were trying to convince me to make a big change, I found some excellent independent advice from a group member. So now, when someone says “please don’t take this the wrong way, but why are you here?” my answer is to ask if they really want me to give them a list.

Choosing the right group or selection of groups is not easy, and you learn from some of the free trials available. Some are free, others can be really quite costly as you pay a membership fee and then often a food bill on top of that. 

The first group that I found was  a breakfast group, so they suited my working day, sadly they didn’t adapt to lockdowns as well as others, they just didn’t have the same draw while others thrived. But, we are back in the normal world and I notice that they have re-launched and I wish them luck.

Some local authorities, like Portsmouth, run free meetings, one local law firm holds a regular get together for a very small fee. But other than that, law firms are noticeable for their absence at such events. 

Everybody needs  a law firm at some point. 

By the way, if you do come, please bring your conveyancer.

Andrew Prismall

Managing Director of HW Conveyancing Searches