October 31, 2022

blog

How to Network as an Entrepreneur: 5 Tips to Try Today

Entrepreneurs can’t afford to be behind the curve—to carve out a space and maintain their competitive edge, they need to ensure they’re using state-of-the-art technology and tactics.

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The five tips below can help entrepreneurs easily and effectively get better results from the time they spend on networking.

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#1: Arm Yourself with the Latest in Networking Technology

In 2022, paper business cards are outdated, and they’re not great for the environment, either. Smart business cards, such as Mobilo, are the future.

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When you hand out a paper business card, you are forced to rely on the other person taking the initiative. They must remember to input your information into their smartphone, and contact you at a later date.

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In general, relinquishing control of the situation is a good way to ensure your networking conversion rates are low.

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Mobilo is different. Just tap your Mobilo card on the other person’s smartphone. A new contact entry will automatically populate with all of your contact information. All the other person has to do is press “Save”. That was easy.

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If you’d like to also get their information, just login to the backend—no app required—and set your Mobilo card to Lead Generation mode. When you tap your card on the other person’s smartphone, a lead generation form will appear. Once they fill out their information, you’ll receive a text with their details, and they’ll receive one with yours. Each of you just needs to click a link in the text message for a new contact entry to automatically populate in each of your respective phones.

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Even better, new lead information can be automatically piped into your CRM platform, so that followup can begin immediately, without any effort from you. Mobilo supports more than 2,000 CRM integrations.

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There’s nothing wrong with keeping a few paper business cards handy for the new connections who prefer them. In all other situations, using Mobilo, the leader in smart business card technology, will give you a big leg up.

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#2: Be Prepared to Sell, Not Tell

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Imagine you’re standing in line at the post office and you strike up a conversation with another individual. You two get to talking (the line is long—what else is new), and eventually, the topic of work comes up.

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You happen to own a bakery. You tell this other person that you own a bakery, and tell them where it is. A few weeks later, you randomly think back to the conversation, and realize they never showed up, despite making it clear they lived in the area.

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What went wrong?

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Perhaps they’ve just been busy—but there’s also a good chance you didn’t give them enough incentive to frequent your business in the first place. After all, there are plenty of bakeries nearby, and perhaps they have been going somewhere else for the past five years. The conversation that the two of you had was nice, but it wasn’t enticing enough to get them to change their deeply ingrained habit.

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Instead of just telling the other person that you owned a bakery, you should have been selling what makes your bakery special. Is it the taste? Are certain treats healthier than most pastries out there? How do you make them? Is the aroma to die for? Are your employees super friendly and caring?

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What makes you stand out?

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Selling, instead of telling, will help you get past the friction of the first conversation, and help turn the other individual into a real customer or client.

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#3: Develop the Gift of Gab

Continuing with the same example, if you want to get to the point where you can casually mention your bakery, you need to be a decent conversationalist in the first place.

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Mobilo is here to help:

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Aside from the above resources, just remember that practice makes perfect. Start conversations everywhere you go, assuming it’s appropriate. The more comfortable you get with talking to others, the more comfortable you’ll be promoting your business to them.

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#4: Network All the Time

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Especially when you’re first starting out, entrepreneurship is all about opening many doors and seeing what’s behind each one. Not everything you do will be a homerun, but all you need is a couple of good gets to find yourself in a desirable position.

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Attend every networking event that makes sense to, join industry-specific groups on Facebook and LinkedIn, and reach out to similar businesses that are not in direct competition with you to see if there is any potential for the two of you to have a relationship. The more you put yourself out there, the more likely you are to see success, especially if you harness the resources linked in the section above.

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Even if it’s 3 AM and you’re tossing and turning, restless to do some sort of work on your business—networking is unique in that you can do it anytime. Don’t start making calls, but making new connections on LinkedIn is definitely something that has the potential to lead to something bigger.

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#5: Don’t Let Old Connections Slip Away

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In business, it’s always harder to gain a new customer or client than it is to retain an existing one.

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The same is true for making connections. It’s far easier to maintain an existing relationship than it is to create a new one.

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Always be sure to keep in touch with your contacts, even if you don’t have big news to share. It always feels good to have a friend or family member check in to see what’s new—the same idea frequently extends to business relationships, too.

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Mobilo’s integration with CRM platforms makes this easy to do. If someone doesn’t engage with any of your initial communications, don’t despair. Just add them to a separate funnel and try again later—all without any manual effort from you.

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If the lead does get cold, use our tips to revive cold networking leads to potentially revive the relationship, rather than let it slip away.

Takeaway

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Networking as an entrepreneur shares some similarities to traditional networking, but in many cases, there’s a bit more hustle involved. Use the above five tips to set yourself up for success, and if you’re still using paper business cards, make the upgrade to a Mobilo smart business card today to save time and get more conversions.

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