Networking: It's Just Talking to People

Are you one of those natural networkers who rushes gleefully from one event to another with bells on? Some are, I’m told, but more of us tend to view the responsibility as a burden we just don’t want to face. Luckily, there are a wide range of tactics that can expand our circle of contacts that don’t involve formal networking as such.

Many accountants overthink networking, taking it as something that must be done through designated networking events at regular intervals. That’s a fine approach, of course, but you can achieve the same goals in many other ways. The point, after all, is quite simple: getting to know more people and letting them become familiar with you as an individual and a knowledgeable professional. These three approaches may hold more appeal than the traditional networking events you dread, but they’re as effective if not more so:

1. Broaden your horizons. It’s fair to say that most of us are in a rut to some degree. Why not try something new, like a class, club or sport? Find a Meetup group for your secret love of Astronomy or organic farming, or learn to tango so you’ll be ready for that trip to Argentina you’ve long fantasized. Try out for a play in the community theater, sign up for a class on home-brewing or join a recreational sports league. It almost doesn’t matter what you do. As long as you actually go there, you’ll be guaranteed to meet new people while you’re having your kind of fun, which has the added benefit of taking the pressure off.
2. Do something positive. Becoming a volunteer for a cause you care about is a wonderful way to meet people. It can be industry-related, like using your skills for the volunteer tax assistance program in your area or teaching financial literacy to local high school students. It can also be something you support in a totally un-work-related way, like animal shelters, battered women’s facilities or community arts programs. There are a million ways to help someone, and you’ll be adding the force of karma to your networking efforts. Who knows? Your next boss or ideal client may be the woman you meet while reading to patients at the children’s hospital.
3. Meet connected (and wealthy) people. How, you ask? By being where they are – even if it’s not for the same reason. Consider volunteering to help with a charity event, orchestra performance or other place the fabulously well-to-do go to mingle. What better way to support a good cause while rubbing elbows with well-heeled donors (i.e. potential clients)? Remember why you’re there – this is about the charity and its goals, not yours – but it’s okay to realize that you’re in an ideal networking situation even as you’re doing the right thing.

Networking doesn’t have to inspire fear, and you can do it anywhere; if there are other people in the room and you talk to them, whatever you choose to do totally counts as networking!  Get out there and let some new people discover for themselves that contrary to what they may have heard, you’re neither a robot nor a squirrel-munching, axe-murdering freakazoid. You’re a fine, upstanding member of the community, a person they know from _____ and someone they can turn to for all their accounting and business advisory needs. See how simple? 

Blog Prepared By:  Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk, President 

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