Contacts, the identification of opportunities, potential partners, customers and sources of financial backing are among the benefits of first starting in corporate life. So, we tracked them down. And all of a sudden, inside of a year's time, I had a national company. They had liked the quality of our work so they took us with them as preferred subcontractors to their new companies. Networks may be structured or casual.
Some research indicates that informal networks are more important than formal ones.
Consistent with other research, we found that the development of contacts is not only important to beginning a business but also to firm development. We also concluded that business growth appears to be significantly related to the time entrepreneurs spend developing contacts within such strategic interest groups as customers, suppliers and investors. Entrepreneurs also considered networks important to developing one's support system. Networks offered the opportunity to construct sounding boards and exchange ideas, to join active negotiating groups, to acquire training, to access resources, and more. Nearly half the entrepreneurs in the study ranked networking first or second among the skills they took from their previous organizational environments.