By Lara Mann
“It’s not what you know, it’s who you know”
Experience, education and lifelong learning (along with a healthy dose of optimism) are all vital requirements for growing and maintaining a successful business. However, having the right people to help you do it makes it all so much easier, and often a lot more fun!
Running a business, whether a start-up, SME or a larger business comes with many challenges and obstacles. The right connections can transform your business in so many ways.
If you’re lucky, a new connection may become a client or supplier which creates a tangible and quantifiable outcome. However, making the right connections isn’t necessarily about “making a sale”
Forming relationships with people based on common ground, trust, and a genuine desire to help others is the best way to begin. The quote by Simon Sinek “We don’t do business with companies. We do business with people. Business is always human” rings true. People want to do business with people that they know, trust and like.
People who create access to the right contacts in the right places can transform your business overnight. A conversation that has been set up by a mutual connection can result in business opportunities, investments and referrals. Valuable connections speak about you in a positive light in rooms that you aren’t in, referring you to others who may be able to use your products or services now or in the future. The goal isn’t necessarily short-term wins but getting people to remember you when they need you.
A broad scope of connections is often beneficial when you are looking for new suppliers or staff members. Correct protocols need to be followed, but it is often useful to have a candidate or supplier referred to you by someone who can vouch for them and their reputation.
Knowledge sharing is one of the most effective ways that connections can help each other. The world today is changing at a pace that we have not experienced before. The playbooks are continuously being rewritten and chaos is often normal. In the world of AI, what you knew 3 months ago has already changed and learning needs to be updated.
The quickest way to learn is for other people who have been down the path ahead of you to share what they have learnt. This can be in informal ways like conversations or chat groups on various platforms, or via podcasts, articles, webinars and conferences. To keep up, it is vital to connect with people in your industry or who have the skills that you need and to tap into their knowledge base. Connections will often share tips and tricks with you for free and help to elevate your thinking, either within your current job or industry, or by exposing you to new and unfamiliar topics.
Getting advice from other people is one of the best ways to transform your business. People are often very generous with their ideas and their time and are willing to share what they have learnt based on their own journeys. They may have faced similar challenges and can tell you about what led to their mistakes and successes, saving you the time and expense of making the same mistakes.
A lot of people, especially introverts, tend to shy away from meeting new people and attending networking events. In a country like South Africa, when you reach out to meet new people you are more often than not greeted with friendly faces who are genuinely interested in finding out more about you and how they can help you. We are a nation of resilient, tenacious problem solvers and many of our issues are overcome by looking out for and supporting each other. The culture of Ubuntu (I am because we are) is a gift and as South Africans we know that we are stronger together.
There are so many formal networks and informal networking events that are available to us to enable us to meet interesting, caring and fun people. Reaching out to people and creating relationships via platforms like LinkedIn is also beneficial, as long as it’s done in the right way. Not all relationships turn out to be beneficial to your business, but you learn a lot anyway and often land up making new friends who make the journey of running a business that much easier, and a lot more fun.
The magic that can happen when you step out of your comfort zone is worth reaching out and being brave.