Better business networking
What you'll learn
- Discover how to find networking groups to attend.
- Recognise the range of formats and activities of business networking and identify the groups and events most likely to suit you and your business needs.
- Learn what you should do before, during and after networking events in order to make your efforts more effective.
- Learn the key elements and techniques to preparing and presenting your 60-second pitch
Requirements
- Students do not need any language or technical skills to take this course.
- Students should recognise that relationships are key to good business and want to expand their business and professional network to build more and better relationships
Description
Networks have always been important for business - from family-run businesses, to the old-school tie, jobs-for-the-boys and the whole ugly world of nepotism. But now, perhaps more than ever, we have the idea of networking as an activity, an activity that has become a keystone for small and medium-sized businesses, especially those who work with other businesses.
But face-to-face networking can be frightening - the idea of walking into a room full of strangers, of pitching your business to a crowd of people you don't know - and it can also be a tremendous drain on time and money. It really helps if you understand the general landscape of networking and how the different organisations function so that you can make more informed decisions about where to focus your resources.
In this course, we'll take a look at the types of group, the obligations that membership can involve, and the activities you can expect at different meetings.
We'll look at the whole before, during and after progression, with guidance on how you can prepare beforehand, advice on how to act during the event - including a section on how to prepare your pitch - and recommendations on what to do afterwards, to make your networking more effective.
We'll ask you to consider your own reasons for networking and explain some of the other motivations you may come across - it's important to realise that not everyone approaches things in the same spirit.
If you're new to networking this course will give you a clear overview of what is involved and get you on the right track from day one.
If you're a seasoned networker it will offer the opportunity to take stock and review what you are doing and why, to be sure you are getting the most out of your efforts.
Who this course is for:
- This course is intended for business owners and others who want to start building more and better business relationships through networking.
- The course is aimed at those with little or no experience of business networking.
- This course is aimed at those who are unsure where find out about what business networking events are available and who want to make the most of their networking activities from the beginning.
- Students who feel their business networking is not effective may also benefit from this opportunity to take stock and review networking options.
Instructor
![Gwyneth Box](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 64 64"%3E%3C/svg%3E){kind=avatar}
- 4.2 Instructor Rating
- 182 Reviews
- 2,026 Students
- 4 Courses
Award-winning poet, writer, translator and businesswoman, with a career spanning IT, teaching, design and publishing, Gwyneth specialises in copy writing and transcreation, particularly in the fields of lifestyle, travel and technology.
As joint owner of the UK creative agency and publishing house Tantamount, Gwyneth works with businesses, educators and freelance creatives on projects that draw together the threads of publishing, design, technology and training.
As a writer, she is fascinated by the multi-layered aspects of language revealed through translation and poetry, and her creative writings explore the borderlands between writer and narrator, between translation and creation, and between memoir and invention.
Over the years, Gwyneth has organised and been an active member of a number of writers' groups. She is Digital Advisor to the SWWJ, the UK's oldest professional organisation for women writers, for whom she has run workshops and courses in subjects including creative writing, translation, and technology for writers. As well as running workshops, she was poet in residence for TEDx Leamington Spa in 2017 and is a regular at open mikes and on local radio.
You can find out more about Gwyneth at her website, where you'll find information about her books (available from Amazon), as well as links to her personal blog and some of her other writing activities.