Next point, by not working on constant widening of our circles of influence and network contacts, you could be severely mucking your chance for success and growth. It's estimated that an average connection has 250 people in their network of contacts. Each person may know 250 people or so. Critical contacts in business and life are often only 2 direct layers away from you, this means each new person has a potential circle of 62,500 contacts!

Consider the odds, then, out of how many contacts, you WOULDN'T find one single contact who could be a better source of info about a better quality work, more clients, and other equally valuable projects. In all likeliness, there's a good chance you'd find more than one.

Does this sound too good to be true? At the end of this article, I will prove the multiplier effect to you!

Business networking is one of the highest growth activities you can take part in. Luckily, just as any worthwhile endeavor, you can become good with constant focus. On top of this, it takes very little time and practice to perfect.

It takes only a moment's conscious decision to become a networker, with no interference to one's daily routine. It only requires a simple change in thoughts, and adopting one major rule:

Greet each new acquaintance with an openness to learn more about that person, a willingness to help, and an offer to stay in touch.

This approach is equally applicable to every form of networking, whether in business or social contexts, and whether the encounter takes place in person or, as frequently happens today, online.

It pays to network in person, not only to meet new people, but also to keep your vital communications skills sharp. Work on your friendliness and conversation skills; even though no cross business relationship might eventuate with that cotnact, they'll remember you and refer to you as a nice person in the future if someone refers about you.

If there's too much going on in your business to get away to networking events, try and focus on only those groups targeted to your industry. Create the greatest opportunity and casual meetings that take place during your work day.

You'll also want to have more business cards than you'll need. That way, you can develop relationships and remain in better control.

If you'd like to network from the comfort of your home or office, or during down time on weekends, join an online business networking community. A lot of them have sub-networks that could be hihgly focussed in your niche. Also, you could check out others profiles and weigh them appropriately.

The raw power of networking online is quite powerful in the way is spreads (they call this viral marketing). I'm part of an online network group with thousands of members.

As members invite friends to join, this network's rate of exponential growth is now up to an average of more than 2,750 new members a week. An a member I was able to connect with 1000's of online connections."Quite surprisingly, it turns out to be 8,138" just people connecting with people!" These are all people I can access with a few clicks of a mouse, and without disturbing my first circle of friends at all. It's amazing at how big each circle of friends, who know more friends who know more frined can grow to, and this exponential growth happens more frequently as you go with less effort each day on my part.

It might be worth pointing out that this is entirely free, and if you decide to upgrade (for a minimal fee) you gain full access to all sorts of specific data. There's often be a great chance of them connecting with me, as we had a commonality in the community of people we mixed with.

Shortness of time shouldn't be an excuse any longer for not connecting with new people who could be potential new business referrers.