How Much Networking is Enough?

Many entrepreneurs use business networking as their primary marketing tool. In many cases, they belong to one or two formal networking groups in addition to attending other, less formal, events, such as are often advertised through a city’s Business Link or through MeetUp.com.  But how much is enough?

There’s an old saying, “If you aren’t measuring, you aren’t marketing.”  If attendance in one formal networking group costs $1,000 per year and results in $10,000 of business, that’s a good measurement.  But you still need to experiment to see if increasing the investment of time and money in additional groups or events would prove to be as profitable.  And perhaps spending less time and money on networking could prove to be just as lucrative.

Start by tracking the source of your contacts and the business and referrals generated from those contacts. If you don’t have a Contact Management Software other than your Outlook, you can do this by customizing your Categories and attaching contacts to one or more category. A second option is to use an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of your contacts and their corresponding categories.