Business Networking Week

Last week has been a dynamic week where I had nice opportunity to link with many fellow entrepreneurs… When things happen right it keeps happening right… Last week I had at least one business networking forum happening every day starting from Tuesday till Saturday… Some how I had to miss startup disco…

It all started with an invite from Business Gyan magazine to attend their panel discussion on importance of Business networking… Panel members were from Headstart.in, HRD forum, TIE & BNI Bangalore chapter and they gave very good insight about the importance of Networking in Business… One good take away importance of being proactive in networking forums… Example if someone joins a business networking forum that is not the end of road, to get results one has to be proactive and a go getter… We had met around 30 entrepreneurs in the meet and exchanged business cards…

Then the next day we had to go to BNI-Awesome chapter… BNI meetings are conducted every week in the mornings at 8 o clock sharp… Chinmaya from Business Gyan gave me an invite and we are pretty interested the way it is organized… This one is a professionally run forum and exclusively for exchanging contacts and businesses… Most folks complement each other than competing… I recommend folks to tryout BNI…

Then the next day we had to attend another BNI-Bdazzlers meet… One good thing about BNI is they never allow companies/individuals with competing products/services to be a part of a chapter… That is one reason that it is a place for complimenting business… I was thrilled to see people sharing references… According to their experience, what they say is any contact is less that 5 degree level… Example if I want the contact of Mr.Narayamurthy it would be less that 5 level like Me -> Reference 1 -> Reference 2 -> Reference 3 -> Reference 4 -> Mr.Narayanamurthy… After attending their session I started believing it…

Bangalore has eight BNI chapters, ironically Chennai doesn’t have any and some folks from Bangalore are taking initiative to start it in Chennai & I’m planning to help them to start it in Chennai… Sadly I missed out on Startup Disco that evening… We exchanged almost 70 business cards on both BNI meetings…

Then on Friday & Saturday it was Proto.in… Hope I need not give any information about Proto as people can visit their site and understand… Proto helped me to interact with Incubators, Startups, and Investors… Got different perspective of businesses and came to know about different business model and innovative approach of young entrepreneurs… Proto boosted my energy levels and kindled fire inside me…

Over all trip to Bangalore was satisfying and self-satisfactory and I’m thank Mr.Bala Murugan my CFO to give good company and support me to make this initiative a success… Over all we came back by distributing 200 of our business cards and collecting 120 business cards… Now it is time to convert these contacts into business… Next week will be concentrating on that…