Breakfast Networking or Burnt Toast?

Breakfast is a good time for networking. Why? Because it is a good way to start your day - focused on building your business. Also, breakfast is an inexpensive meal and the meeting need not go on too long - unlike dinner. Lunch is a good second choice for networking meetings.

One-on-one or small-group breakfast meetings are even more effective for exploring and building business relationships.

A large business group breakfast is another type of networking meeting.

Meeting with a networking group can be an effective way of building your business. Or it could be a huge waste of your time. The business success that you get from your networking group depends mostly on you and partly on the nature of the group.

Recently I attended a breakfast meeting for a local networking group as their guest speaker. It was a splendid buffet breakfast. They had the typical agenda: networking time, breakfast, self-introductions to the group, guest speaker, special announcements and finish by nine. It was a reasonably tight agenda.

However, while eating, I was disappointed by the discussion around my breakfast table. The discussion was frivolous and negative. My tablemates talked about petty things - like the bank representative who complained about her office with no windows. The others found other things to complain about. As I listened in dismay I wondered how this discussion would help any of them get more business.

They seemed to miss the whole point of this networking breakfast - to develop their networks so they could get more business.

Perhaps they thought that networking was an on-stage/ off-stage thing. That they are only networking when they deliver their 30-second introduction. Maybe they believed that while eating breakfast they were not networking or being judged. The reality is that conversing over the meal can be the most powerful networking. That's when deals can be made.

The reality of networking is that while in small groups over breakfast you have a captive audience to develop your networking relationships. This group squandered their opportunity and they might have irreparably damaged their image amongst that intimate group. Who wants to be remembered as a whiner and complainer?

It was a good thing that the breakfast was delicious - and the guest speaker was fabulous.

When it comes to networking - you are always on-stage.

Develop your networking with “Your Guide to Networking Success.