Once you have a home business going, you still have the most important job of all to accomplish, that of building your network of customers and/or clients. After all, without a network of contacts, you will not have any reason to have a business, will you? It doesn’t matter what kind of business you have chosen because in every business, whether it’s a product or service, there is a need for customers/clients. There is no business, online or off, that can survive without the benefit of networking. Even if you are a service provider of a creative nature, you need to network in order to assure that you will constantly have those who are interested in buying what you create.

For some people, the idea of networking conjures up the idea of going door to door or making phone calls to people they don’t know, but that is not the idea at all. In fact, the best networking tool is providing good service so that your customers will refer others to your business. Word of mouth is always a better sales tool than any other type of networking that you can do. Of course, even though referrals are your most effective network tool, that doesn’t meant that it is or should be your only tool. Even with referrals, you need to do some networking if you expect your business to be successful and to continue to maintain success. That doesn’t mean that you have to get on the phone every day and contact people nor does it mean that you have to constantly surf the Internet to find others who are interested in what you have to offer. However, you do need to take time on a regular basis to perform networking activities, which may vary from contacting referrals to simply promoting your website.

The value of networking has been underemphasized in many respects, and because of that, many new businesses are doomed to fail before they are even out of the planning stages. However, you choose to network for your business is not the issue, but if you expect your business to succeed, you have to promote it. Do not be fooled into thinking that once you have your client base, you no longer have to promote your business because if you accept that line of thinking, you will not be in business for very long. Customers are fickle, so they will not always buy goods or services from you. You need to have a backup plan for those times when “regular” customers decide to utilize the services of another provider. Unless your product or service is unique, which is unlikely unless you are an inventor, people will go where they find the products or services they want at the price they want to pay. Always be prepared for these slow times by continually networking for new customers.

posted by Chris Simpson