Entrepreneurs think differently. After all, if you’ve managed to take a business idea and make it into a profitable business, you’re setting yourself apart from the crowd. Entrepreneurs in Australia are doing well for themselves,
and it is estimated that in June 2016 over 60 percent of actively trading businesses in Australia were run by entrepreneurs. Of course, not all of them succeed. So what sets the successful apart from those who aren’t?
It’s all about the right mindset. The right mindset has many benefits to offer everyone who runs their own business, and it can even be used to improve one’s networking efforts.
According to Forbes author Ryan Robinson, “of all the traits, habits and routines successful entrepreneurs have in common, one stands alone as the most important – accountability.” This ability to honour one’s promises and commitment is what separates those who dabble in a hobby on the side and those who manage to transform it into a thriving business. Being an entrepreneur means that all the responsibility falls on you, so if something goes awry there is only one person you can blame – yourself.
So what does any of this have to do with networking? Well, when entrepreneurs approach networking, they’re doing it from the perspective of accountability. With limited time available and thousands of pressing tasks all requiring immediate attention, they understand that they cannot afford to waste any time when networking.
A successful entrepreneur will rarely rock up at a networking event without having prepared for it beforehand, by finding out who will be attending and without having a concrete, achievable goal in mind. Accountability means that when they commit to attending a networking event that they need to extract the maximum amount of value out of it in the shortest amount of time. This accountability means that entrepreneurs are driven to put in extra effort into all their networking efforts so that they are more likely to get something out in this short time period.
Your business might be established and successful, but it never hurts to remember that you are ultimately responsible for your own success. This could mean adopting a different mindset and putting in the necessary amount of effort into everything you do.
Including your networking.Our next guest speaker at The Business
Our next guest speaker at The Business League is a walking testimonial to this. Our guest speaker in June is an entrepreneur by the name of Mark Sowerby.
How do we know he is an entrepreneur? Because the Queensland Government has named him “Chief Entrepreneur” for the state.Mark has a number of roles – with his business, with the Queensland Government and he is also a mentor on the Accelerate Entrepreneur Program and Transformer Programs at Bond University. This is a ‘hub’ for entrepreneurs to create ideas, refine them and launch them. One of the cornerstones of these programs is creating a space for entrepreneurs to network. Many amazing results have been achieved through this ‘focused networking’. It’s this entrepreneurial mindset in a networking space that solves problems, finds solutions, creates connections and ultimately propels you forward faster.
What do you need to do to your networking to give it that entrepreneurial edge?
We recommend attending our breakfast and hearing from Queensland’s Chief Entrepreneur.