Networking your Brand - 7 Benefits10/11/2018 The importance of networking more than just your business Networking is one of the most important and effective activities for business growth, success and prosperity. However, until more recently I found business networking to be hard work, awkward, unimaginative, often boring and usually unrewarding. I would come away from networking events feeling disappointed. The whole experience seemed to transform my once buoyant spirit in to one of discouragement. What makes networking so unproductive? If networking is one of the most important and effective of activities to grow business, why doesn’t it render winning results more readily?  Across the city I call home I am surrounded by people in their 20s and early thirties who seem to see fitness, gym attendance and a public display of body sweat and near exhaustion to be a way of life. Not so with me. I’m from a different generation. That’s not to say people of my peer group didn’t exercise. I just don’t remember it being a staple of our regular week of activity when I was of a similar age. Or, perhaps it was just me.  Why Brand is so Crucial to Competition and to taking Market Share At our September training event in Zambia I developed discussion around business competition, the concept of taking market share and the crucial role brand building plays in the process. I was prepared for a reasonably lukewarm reaction, as I had already learned that competitive business with the aim of actively taking market share doesn’t sit so well culturally with Zambian business owners.  |