Networking and Entrepreneurship in 2011

Dear Networking and Business contacts,

For starters we wish you a happy, healthy and successful 2011. May the years of financial crisis and “getting-back-on-our-feet” stay behind us for good and let’s shift the economy back into a higher gear together !

It’s a tradition to start the New Year with a letter of good resolutions. This year I would like to title my New Year’s resolutions : “Networking and Entrepreneurship in 2011”. Let’s start by looking back at last year.

2010 was the year “after the financial crisis”. It was the year where a record count of companies had to close their books. It was the year where the blow really hit us, after most companies where already digging deep into their financial backups. It was also the year where it was more than ever before needed to network because only by joining forces we could conquer this storm.

Networking is something we all do online and offline through multiple networks and business clubs. Trendwatchers call this “inline networking” combining online and offline.
When entrepreneurs and businessowners used to be able to stay in touch with 125 to 150 people, by adding online networking they are now able to stay in touch with 500 people or more. The more people you know, the more opportunities will come by !

The social part of this avalanche of contacts is of course awesome, but as entrepreneurs we mustn’t forget to have a look at the business part. On many networks you hear great slogans emphasizing the business intentions, but on average it mainly stays a social community with occasional referrals. Let’s try to become active in 2011 and work on this business part of our networking efforts. Let’s try to go for the next step and kick our economy in the butt.
Networking in these hard times is necessary more than ever before and especially “sharing with your network” has to be part of it. When every entrepreneur actively tries to share with his or her network we can all survive these difficult times. Last year I had set myself a goal to share at least 10.000 € with my network through referrals. It was no problem to reach this goal. Every week you will hear contacts that are searching for someone or something.
It’s a very small effort to guide them in the right direction through connecting them with someone in your network. My goal for this new year is to refer at least 11.000 € of business to my networking contacts, referring to the year '11.

“I can highly recommend Geert as a leading social networker and event host in Belgium, and am grateful to him for valuable business referrals and networking opportunities.”
Levent Korkmaz, Salesforce.com CRM Consultant & Non-Profit Implementation Partner, BECAUSE sprl

I also wish for Belgium to finally get out of its political jam, because this is a very bad situation for all Belgian entrepreneurs. The world’s economy is watching us with many concerns and it gets more and more difficult for Belgian entrepreneurs to get credibility abroad.

Of course we are also preparing to make the next step toward a successful 2011. We have started to distribute our new company-flyer and we have prepared a nice calendar of ‘open’ Social Media Workshops.

We also look forward to meeting you again at one of our presentations or workshops, at one of the many networking events … or monthly through our newsletter !

Warm regards,

Geert CONARD