Through my own experience of growing my business through networking, I identified this ladder of success:

Me Me Me

Most people quite naturally join networking organisations to get business for themselves. They are in it for Me Me Me.

Team spirit

It took me a year to realise that's not how it works. Maybe I'm a bit slow, but it took me a whole year to learn how to carry the rest of my group members in the back of my head between meetings, so that when I fall into conversation about mortgages, for example, I can recommend my mortgage broker team-mate from the group.

Network the network

Having had that light bulb moment, it didn't take me long to move up to the next level. When you join a formal networking organisation, you usually join a whole network of groups. If your discipline doesn't clash with existing members, you can sometimes present your business at any group. Offer to substitute for an absent member and you even get your breakfast free, while extending your own network and seeing how another group functions.

Networking tart!

These are the people who belong to more than one networking organisation and accept just about every invitation they receive. Instead of knowing about 250 people, like average business owners do, they know 1,000 people or more. So who do you think gives and gets the most referrals? Well, it's not the Me Me Me people, that's for sure. When you're a Networking Tart, giving and getting referrals is easy! You become known as a hub of useful contacts, so people come to you to ask 'Do you know a good accountant' and you can say 'Hey, I know a great accountant', would you like his contact details?'

So where are you on this 'networking food chain'? And more importantly, where do you want to be? Like anything, the more you put in, the more you get out. So if you give referrals to people in the group, people will give referrals to you. If you belong to a group full of Me Me Me people, no-one will win much business and the group will surely fail. I recommend you shop around until you find a group with at least one networking tart, and you'll find you are soon connected with lots of new business opportunities.

Jackie Barrie is a copywriter, designer and marketeer who specialises in making complex information appear simple. She calls it 'writing without waffle'.

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