welcome back and to shed light about how entrepreneurship could boost the economy and be an important element in achieving a great and uh productive economy uh we are joined here in the suribao by our our entrepreneurship expert good morning good morning uh good morning doctor today we’re concentrating on the value of uh the business networking to grow the business now um what are the key aspects in such a concept doctor yeah i think like business networking as we know it is the ability to connect with other people i think one of the big challenges that entrepreneurs go through while they’re starting their own businesses even like those who had been in business for a while is that they stay focused in their business so they work inside the different dynamics and aspects of their business and they do not have the time or the focus to look like to get out of their business and to look at building strategic partnerships and building relationships around the business so business networking comes in handy for business owners and ceos that they’re able to shake hands with different potential partners potential hires potential clients and potential partners for their businesses and definitely that would be able to boost the business in case that you build the right relationships at the right time so having like an ongoing flow of new connections at the right time if you’re able to take advantage of the right connection that provides opportunities for growth definitely when is a good time dr abdul for owners to seek business networking when they should start to do so well i think um i think all the time i think like even at the point in which that they are starting to think about a new business idea there is going to depend on what do what do they discuss and the type of networking events they go to but definitely once they have an idea stage they have like they’re interested in a specific industry or an idea and by then they they would start networking and uh seeing what people in the industry are thinking and what are the interesting ideas that’s going around that because by then at the idea stage they’re going to move into product stage you’re going to know who’s qualified enough to build the products what are the existing partners that i can partner with to grow the business et cetera what about the specific challenges that a business network networking would be a good and useful to help and overcome yeah i think like different people use different networking for like different objectives i mean like one of the most popular is lead generation if you run a business and you’re looking for clients going to business networking events or like setting up profiles on business networking events is a vital way for you to connect with potential clients so definitely lead generation is a big part of it recruitment is is one required especially sea level executives if you’re looking at people with a lot of expertise so like going out and shaking hands with them and getting to know them personally before you go through the recruitment process is also a very effective uh process the expanding your network looking at like what’s happening in your industry and other industries is also another objective for which business networking is a very good investment what are different formats of business networking online and offline owner can take advantage of yeah i think like if you look at the the concept of business networking like if you believe in business networking and if you’d like to embody that and everything you do you can use whatever platform to do business networking we could see people using facebook groups for for business networking there are like dedicated websites like linkedin and several other regional websites that could be where you can set up your profile and do a lot of business networking um so do you believe that the social media here is playing an important role and the new um applications here that we can use for business networking as well exactly like if you look at business networking online and offline there is an interesting balance between that if you’re able to use online to build credibility and build your profile and get to know people and allow people to access your profile and to know what you’re working on this is going to be an interesting way to initiate connections and definitely all the available applications whether they are actually dedicated for business networking or even like some people use dating applications for business networking so there’s a lot of different utilizations for all social networking and connecting people application that uses connecting people the interesting point when it comes to moving these relationships offline which is the um which makes it actually more lively and more effective because once you meet someone and shake hands exchange business cards have like short discussions um these are like builds of stronger relationships other than just connecting on some kind of social network now doctor how much is too much of engaging in the business networking activities yeah i would say it gonna depend on that on the rule of the person inside the organization but there is a very popular term that’s used by uh people who usually criticize those super um like networkers which is not working so other than networking is written as not working like people who have like it’s their full-time job is just to go to networking events get some snacks and talk to people without actually having anything to do so this is an extreme case which actually happens sometimes because networking with the specific personality types could be very addictive so especially for business owners who should be busy doing other things they should like engage in networking activities as much as they would generate an ongoing flow of connections new ideas but not make it a full-time job so like once or twice um a week uh could be actually too much for uh probably too much it’s gonna depend on the business the stage of the business but looking at relevant networking events and focusing on that would be of a lot of value uh doctor how can we find relevant networking opportunities that’s a that’s a very very important question it’s also a challenging question uh because like when we look at it networks could actually be exclusive at some time so there are some like membership-based networks that’s closed for its members which i think majority of networks like to maintain like uh quality and relevance that’s why they are closed so they have to become a member first like before you um so there is these membership-based networks which you can get to know like very popular associations and networks in which that you can look at the terms what do we focus on is this relevant to me and by then you sign up to the membership you become a member of the network so identifying these networks that’s relevant to you and engaging with their activities is the straightforward approach definitely there is a lot of interesting things like applications like meetup and several other networks in which they have an events section so you can look at the events section and see like relevant events that’s scheduled there are something called events aggregators which is like different websites and applications that search the internet for events for geography so for example you can look at all relevant events in egypt and then you can filter that by business by specific industry so taking a taking a look at all these events probably you can do this yearly and quarterly so at the beginning of the year if you’re in charge of the market if you’re a business owner you can go at some of these event aggregators and build a list of the big networking events that might take place in in the coming year and basically you start signing up to these relevant events and then quarterly look at so you can actually break this down into a system so you would have an ongoing flow and commitment to attend some of these networking events because also sometimes as a business owner if you focus on the business you’re going to forget all about the networking components so it’s it’s always good to have a reminder that i need to go and look for networking events and attendant but definitely that doctor requires a lot of planning so how can we plan to be able to acquire an efficient network networking event and attend it and also impress others with what we have yeah i would say that when it comes to networking like experience is the ultimate teacher so i think it takes a lot of experience for people to know which are the relevant uh networking events etc but i think you can look at credible events for for example if you’re in a specific industry you’re going to look at others in the industry for example they had some positive feedback in very specific events so by then these seems to be critical credible events that i would like to attend as well and um and like looking at the event description and specific details probably getting in touch with the event organizers and understanding more about how does it work and all these are different ways to like identify that these are the most relevant events to me and before that definitely knowing what i want so um like there are some generic networking activities and there’s some very specific networking activities so knowing what i’m looking for and then looking at and investigating further the credibility and the program for the events for which i engage what are the highlights here of business networking etiquette uh doctorate yeah i think when it comes to business networking one of the big challenges especially like once people are going for lead generation is that the it becomes like overly salesy so they are like over sales themselves or they sell their products and services which is actually like in the networking environment you could actually promote yourself and promote your products and services but you have to do this intelligently it like how is by looking at what the network cares about so looking at this particular event what is it about and basically from my background and my connection how can i bring value to this and um like for example if we’re in a facebook group and this facebook group talks about a specific topic and i want to promote an upcoming event that i’m organizing um there is an approach for me to take the link the sign up link to the event and go to the group and to post it there until people please sign up to my event this is a very salesy and almost like unwelcomed approach though if i look at what this network talks about what do people there want to know and then i write a post i thoughtfully spend like an hour in writing a post that’s relevant to the network so people start reading that and you see that oh that seemed very critical i’m getting value out of reading that and then by the end by the way we’re organizing an activity if you’d like to take this further you can sign up there so this is a very decent way to introduce your activities to introduce yourself so um not being salesy but rather adding value that’s the biggest way to establish credibility in a network is that um you know they they call them cedars and leechers like if you’re a network and basically we’re contribution-based network i would either see the network by offering something offering value or i would actually be taking value out of the network so um the the highlight of being good at business networking and seeing what the network cares about and then providing value without having like any strings attached to doing that so if you go there provide value and then you don’t even introduce any service next time people are going to come talk to you to know what you’re doing so not being pushy but rather having a balance between bullying and pushing this is a very interesting uh like social concept and that works in business networking yes now doctor how to measure the impact of the networking activities how do we measure it for a company how would they measure the impact of what they are doing yeah i think that’s that’s a quite difficult question because like it’s it’s debatable in terms of i went to an event and i made some connection i met some 15 people but by then i’m not sure how many of these connections uh are becoming uh like fruitful win so i think you can do this on a yearly basis so if you’re if you’re a company and if you’re using business networking like uh you have um like a dedicated section or like indicated a period of time for business networking you can actually look at the effectiveness for each activity that you engaged with and you do that by basically writing down the contacts that you have created connecting with them and following up with them and basically once you do that you look at the rate of like established connection whether you’re generating new clients whether you establish new partnerships whether you moved into a new direction so um like when it comes to networking and making connections with people becomes more like long term and that sometimes after three years of meeting someone you remember that i know someone who had expertise in this area so probably i can connect with them so keeping the contact details engaging with people in a way that’s very convenient to them and by then you can start measuring and seeing the impact of these various networking events does it need intelligence uh dr abdul or does it need training here in order to do that networking in a positive way yeah i think definitely it needs both so it needs social intelligence to engage effectively in networking events not to be in ag because we do meet a lot of people who are just enact in order to sail or to have a good networking and it does reflect negatively on the person in front of you exactly yeah exactly i think like um also when it comes to like the best practices besides not being salesy and rather adding value a big part of this gets back to the social skills of the individual like social skills is basically other than uh like pushing what i have i would i would be spending more time getting the other person to talk about themselves understanding what are the challenges how do they view the world their their brain frequency how they are thinking about the world and then i would be presenting to them an idea or a concept that’s quite relevant to them something that you can relate to so this becomes like very convenient to them because you’re not like pushing an agenda on them but rather you’re engaging in a conversation with them like another aspect of that is not being pushy in the follow-up process i mean like if you’re following up with people and they probably they have been nice passing your business card but they are not interested in doing business with you so it’s it’s always healthy to how to draw a line here between being a nag and um pushy in front or with the person in front of you and just being an intelligent person who is attracting the attention of uh the the person in front of you and gain his attention and interest as well yeah i think like by then is it the talent here somehow well definitely it evolves into a talent but it’s about consistently thinking about providing value to people because by then like the talent is understanding people understanding their personality types what you’re looking for and then bringing value to them so it’s as if like i went to networking events not knowing what to expect and then someone spent three minutes knowing what uh my challenge is and then he thoughtfully uh thought that there is an interesting person that you can talk to or i know a website where you can find a lot of these listed where i have a format an excel sheet templates in which that you can use to get this done so by then if i if i introduce this to someone they would definitely be very interested in following up and taking the relationship farther because i actually added value and right now in business they say that there is an evolution in the way business is happening into what they call it open random and supportive so they say like businesses and and establishing connections in the business used to be uh closed selective and authoritative like there’s no hierarchy but rather what’s happening right now with a lot of innovations and new ideas is that you want to get to know a lot of people they do not have to be at the same size of the company they do not have to be as successful as your company per se but you would like to know what’s new what are the evolving companies etc so being open random and supportive and supportive here is by paying it forward it’s looking at what people are looking for and helping them with that that established definitely a lot of network credit that you can utilize uh on like getting favors from others from the network afterwards because you have consistently added value to it now doctor definitely this would be easier for a brand new company starting off because it’s still creating its image but what if this company is an older company now would changing the image and the branding require more networking efforts and to what extent would a company with a certain image be accepted within the networking community yeah like definitely i would say that more established companies or let’s call it institutions and institutions we have hierarchy and considerations for who to do what so the challenge usually from these entities engaging is choosing the who is going to engage on behalf of the company so by then it’s um because if the ceo is not available then like business development manager who should actually be representing the company at these events so giving authority to the individual to represent the company and also these individuals we do not have a very large scope of uh like authority to communicate on behalf of the company so usually we engage to the level that’s slightly personal so for even those coming to represent companies you should be allowed by the entity to kind of become like personal so they are communicating as human beings even if they are doing that on behalf of the company and and by then i mean like it and like for the companies they need to establish institutions we have the challenges that business the business environment is evolving quickly and there is new innovative startups so you want to go engage with these like new ideas to kind of um stay in touch with the trends because if entities are not doing the networking components if big companies are not doing the networking components or like the foresight components which is networking is a very big part of it by then like in a few years they’re not going to be in touch with new technologies and we have seen a lot of successful partnerships that happen between startups and big companies by having executives in the big companies coming to look at what’s happening there and seeing okay we can actually support this project because this is going to upgrade the way we do things inside our big institution so um like looking at it from an innovation perspective and being open about it having much more authority to communicate like on a personal uh side beside also the the corporate affairs and then following up with this consistently within the structure itself so it becomes more that i establish the connection with you and then i’m going to guide you inside my institution to take this opportunity further indeed uh dr abdul um at what extent these business networking could be boost to the economy yeah i think like um like business networking activities usually brings brings about a lot of opportunities that’s not seen so there’s a lot of business opportunities and potential new businesses that’s not on the surface because no one is talking about it because like every business owner is kind of they are working on their business they are focused exclusively they might have some very interesting experiences to share but unless they open up and they start sharing these experiences and these opportunities and by then you would say that like a few ideas together actually build a huge knowledge base upon which that you can first upgrade the level of knowledge and awareness within the industry and then you can definitely build new businesses that takes advantage of different components there could be some entities that build advanced capacity and technology components there could be others on like a business or sales or marketing capacities so if you bring all these ideas together but then you’re able to build new companies and new institutions and new kind of partnerships between different entities that would eventually boost the economy yes indeed now doctor when it comes to the business networking to what extent can it be challenging for some businesses yeah it actually could be challenging for some individuals because like we kind of like sometimes you classify people into introverts and extroverts so um like extroverts are they’re pretty fine with the stimulation so they they would go out and talk to people introverts usually they come and you find the corner and they settle down there so um like and this is very challenging because like networking is about walking to people and like shaking hands with them and having initiating a discussion with them that’s why there is like models that gets everybody to kind of do an organized networking which what they call speed networking so speed networking like activities is that it has time slots to say five minutes in these five minutes there is like something like a bell so every five minutes the build rings and then you have to move and talk to someone else so you organize the environment so if you have a hundred people in the room every five minutes they have to move to talk to someone else so by then like for these introverts who are not really used to this networking environments they’re going to find that someone else has to reach out and talk to them and and also for organizers sometimes you could find these introverts and like guide them into and introduce two uh to to each other’s to start talking together so like for these type of personalities there are specific formats that would definitely work for them and make it easier for them to engage in various networking events indeed mr abdulrahman our entrepreneurship expert thank you very much for your precious input thank you thanks for having me thank you very much doctor and that brings us to the end of our episode of breakfast show but first of all i’d like to thank my colleague maheshi thank you very much russian thank you very much our videos still tomorrow with another group it’s goodbye for now [Music]
Tech Entrepreneur, engineer, teacher and researcher.
Quick Links
Menu
"A vigorous, trustworthy and meticulous hard working man. He was the principal organizer of the event"
"Inspirational, motivational and mind-broadening entrepreneur. He is surely one of the “multis”; multi-talented, multi-tasking and multi-discipline – all governed by a great vision and seamless implementation."
"Abdo is a wonderful ambassador for Egypt as he is a warm, compassionate and caring man."
![[Nile TV] Entrepreneurship & The Economy](https://www.abdomagdy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/8-750x350.jpg)
