Image by Gunnar Ries via FlickrI've seen people attend every networking event that's going - hoping to get business and potentially wasting their time and money.
Your Time - Even free events have a cost associated with them:
- Most networking meetings last one to two hours.
- Add your travel time, time spent preparing and following up and a networking meeting can easily result in three to four hours for each meeting.
- Multiply this by the amount of events you attend on a regular basis and it soon adds up.
Unless it's your only function in life or you really have the time to maximise your investment in all those networking events, I'd recommend a maximum of two events a week.
Your Money - The financial investment includes:
- The cost of the meeting
- Annual membership fees
- Travel expenses
- Cost of your time (use your hourly rate)
How much does this add up to for all the events you attend?
How much business have you got as a result of attending these network meetings?
Take into account that networking is a long-term investment but if you're not meeting the right people at the events you go to - be more selective.
Better to attend one or two good quality events on a regular basis than dozens of events for very little reward - balance your networking with your other marketing activities.
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