Number 3: A Networking Success Story by Cathy Delhanty of The Networking Workshop

The Hague University of Applied Science Entrepreneurial and Innovation Minor has a new Networking Skills lecturer! All because of Machiel. Machiel and I met on 3 September 2012 at The Hague Open Coffee Meetup near the university. I wanted to give a lecture to the students on Networking skills. Machiel is a student there and was confident that he could find the right contact. He offered to find someone for me to talk to – at least to get onto the right path.

Only two days later, Machiel sent an email with the contact details of Marcel at the Ondernemers and Innovatie minor program – the Entrepreneurial and Innovations minor. Within a week, I found myself at the university meeting with Marcel. Guess what?! They were looking for a new lecturer on Networking Skills! So now, that is me! The first lecture was 2 October with a class of 40 students.

The Minor in Entrepreneurial Studies and Innovation

The Hague University runs a minor program for entrepreneurial students. The program covers all aspects of creating a business from having the idea and proof of concept through the feasibility and development phases to the launching of the company. The program introduces students to the concepts in a hands-on manner and guides them through the development of their own projects. Four times per year, Networking Skills are taught and the class is, appropriately, followed by a Business Networking Lunch. Entrepreneurs and companies from the Hague are invited to mingle with the students and discuss their projects.

I am thrilled and I think that this is a networking success story. Why is this important? Because I am building my business. Lecturing on the core subject of my company at the Hague University adds credibility and will help build my reputation. The added bonus is that I also attend the lunch, learn more about the students and their projects, and have a chance to meet the invited guests. Perfect!

If you would l like to know more about The Hague University of Applied Science, please visit their website at http://www.thehagueuniversity.com

Number 2: A Networking Success Story by Alena

Paula and Barbara, who work in the space industry, told Cathy, who works in the telecommunications and satellite industry, about the open day at the European Space Agency ESTEC in The Netherlands. The first in 20 years! Cathy booked tickets for her family to attend. Then she told Alena, who is a computer programmer. Who booked tickets for her family and then sent the link to her husband, who works at the European Patent Office in Rijswijk, The Netherlands. And he passed the link to several of his colleagues at his office. Who booked tickets for their families to attend. And so on…

Barbara – Paula – Cathy – Alena – Vitali – x 6 colleagues (+ their families).

This can also be viewed as: space industry – telecommunications and satellite industry – computer programming – Patent Office. It is amazing how things spread by word-of-mouth networking.

When you pass on a message, it is important to remember that it can be spread beyond the recipient. People love to share interesting news and events and the ESA open day was just such an event. ESA does not open its doors very often.

Why is this an important success story? Because ESA is exciting and high tech. It is usually inaccessible. This chain has allowed people to spread access to something that is special and their friends are very happy to have been included. The sender gets credit for making the recipient feel special – a sort of “Thank you for thinking of me!” feeling. And it gives people something to discuss around the water cooler the next day. “Did you go to the ESA open house yesterday? Vitali/Alena/Cathy/Barbara/Paola told me about it!”  Everyone happy. One thing for sure, Paola does not know the people from the European Patent Office that attended the Open Day because she told Barbara about it. This how networking works.

The following is downloaded from ESA’s website:

Starting in The Netherlands, The REV is for women seeking personal emancipation in the workplace.  With support from women who have achieved the level of success they want, a group of international women will work together with their Dutch sisters for change – 30 woman at a time!

We are planning a meeting in early October in Rijswijk, The Netherlands. The location is secret an you will need to contact Revolution Headquarters at connecting@networkingfor.com to join.

The first surprise will be a full day of workshops covering work/life balance, personal style, confidence building, and networking skills!

email: Cathy at connecting@networkingfor.com

Cheers

Cathy

Number 1: A Networking Success Story by Jolanda Adrianus Tonbo Interieurstyling

The moment I decided I was going to start up my interior decorating company, I started with making a visit to a local interiorshop, near where I live. The owners of the shop did not know me at all and knew nothing about the company I was about to start up. I knew that somewhere along the line I would be needing a place to go for wallpaper books and curtain samples and such. If I could make a connection that would feel right, for both party’s, we might be helpful to each other in the future.

So I went in to their shop, had a nice chat and went away. Only months after that first meeting I went back and had a cup of coffee with them. Somewhere during the nice conversation we had, I asked what they were looking for in the near future. Besides the wish for more customers, I learned that they wanted to move their shop and were planning to change how they displayed their products. A few months later opportunity knocked on my door and I took one of the shop owners to a trade show, where he could find inspiration for displaying his product in the new shop.

After a while I went to the shop again, just paying a visit, and asked if I could come around every so often to have a look at the newest trends in the interior decorating fashion. They not only said yes, they offered to keep some of my business cards at hand in their shop, so they could give it to a customer at an appropriate moment. Sharing information on interior decorating products and all sorts of combinations is fun enough for both parties during such visits, really. In one or two occasions of such a visit, I even happend to help some of their customers with making choices in wallpaper and matching paint colors for free.

Another few months later, the shop owners had a customer in their shop. He just started renovating his house of birth. He wanted to get it ready to live in once again after his mother had passed away. He wanted to transform the house but did not know how to combine the elements of the house he wanted to preserve and new elements. The shop owners gave him one of my business cards and he contacted me. This customer is now our mutual customer. I help with connecting the dots and advice him about bigger and smaller improvements and color schemes, while products and paints are bought in the shop of my, meanwhile, befriended shopowners. This customer creates work for me for a sizable period of time because he started a project that will take quite some time to finish and he also generates income at the local interior decorating shop.

I think this is one of my best examples of how networking is working. Networking takes some time and effort, but it will pay off.

Jolanda Adrianus

Tonbo Interieurstyling

For more information about the company and its products, please contact Jolanda at info@tonbointerieurstyling.nl and have a look at their website at www.tonbointerieurstyling.nl

And again in Dutch!

Vanaf het moment dat ik besloot mijn bedrijf op het gebied van Interieurstyling te starten, bracht ik een bezoekje aan mijn plaatselijke winkel op het gebied van behang, verf en vloerbekleding. De eigenaren van de winkel kende mij niet en wisten ook niet dat ik een bedrijf wilde starten. Maar ik wist dat er een moment zou komen dat ik behangboeken, gordijnstalen etc. nodig zou gaan hebben. Wanneer ik een goede relatie kon opbouwen, die goed voelt voor beide partijen, zouden we elkaar in de toekomst misschien kunnen  helpen.

En dus ging ik de winkel binnen, had een leuk gesprekje en ging weer weg. Pas na een paar maanden na die eerste ontmoeting ging ik terug en dronk ik een kopje koffie met de eigenaren. Ergens in het gesprek dat we hadden vroeg ik hen wat ze in de nabije toekomst wilden bereiken. Naast de wens om meer klanten, leerde ik dat ze plannen hadden om de winkel te verhuizen en dat ze de manier waarop ze hun producten presenteerde wilde wijzigen. Een paar maanden later kreeg ik een kans om één van de eigenaren mee te nemen naar een beurs waar hij inspiratie kon opdoen in het etaleren van zijn producten in de nieuwe winkel.

Een tijdje daarna ging ik opnieuw naar de winkel, gewoon om een bezoekje brengen en te vragen of ik af en toe langs mocht komen om de nieuwste trends in interieurmode te komen bekijken. Niet alleen zeiden ze ja, ze boden me ook aan om een aantal van mijn visitekaartjes in hun winkel te bewaren zodat ze die op een geschikt moment aan een klant konden geven. Het delen van informatie op het gebied van producten voor het interieur  en alle mogelijke combinaties tijdens dit soort bezoekjes is al leuk genoeg, eigenlijk. Tijdens één of twee van dit soort bezoekjes heb ik zelfs spontaan en gratis een paar klanten in hun winkel geholpen bij het kiezen van behang en verf.

Weer een paar maanden later kwam er een klant bij de winkeleigenaren in de winkel. Hij was pas begonnen aan de renovatie van zijn geboortehuis. Hij wilde de woning opknappen om in te gaan wonen, nadat zijn moeder was overleden. Hij wilde veranderingen aanbrengen maar wist niet goed hoe hij oude die hij wilde behouden en nieuwe elementen met elkaar kon verbinden. De winkeleigenaren gaven hem mijn visitekaartje en hij nam contact met me op. Deze klant is nu onze gezamenlijke klant.

Ik help de klant met het verbinden van de punten en bij het adviseren op het gebied van kleine en grote verbeteringen en met het kiezen van kleurschema’s. De klant koopt producten en verf in de winkel van mijn inmiddels bevriende winkeleigenaren. Deze klant levert mij voor een langere tijd werk op omdat het project waaraan hij is begonnen behoorlijk wat tijd in beslag zal nemen om af te krijgen en hij levert ook inkomsten op voor de winkel.

Ik denk dat dit één van mijn beste voorbeelden is over hoe netwerken werkt. Netwerken vraagt een inspanning in tijd en moeite, maar is zeker de moeite waard.

Jolanda Adrianus

Tonbo Interieurstyling

Voor meer informatie over het bedrijf en haar producten kunt u contact opnemen met Jolanda op info@tonbointerieurstyling.nl en eens een kijkje op hun website op www.tonbointerieurstyling.nl

Dearest Readers I want to hear your networking success stories!

It is with pleasure that I start a Networking Success Stories section on The Networking Workshop website. This section is for you. Tell your networking stories! Show others how you use business networking to build your businesses, reputations, and careers! Stories can be about big successes or small successes – but let’s hear about your networking success stories! The goal is to give you a forum to show off your networking skills so other people can learn how to achieve similar results.

We are looking for anecdotes, events, specific things that people did to help you out, things you did to help others, and of course, the networking moment that made you feel proud. We can help each other by sharing our business networking experiences because I think that the more examples people have, the easier they will find networking. This is particularly important to people that find networking difficult. We want to show that networking has many varieties and many different results. In fact, I expect that you do a lot more networking that you think!

Please submit your story in 250-1000 words. We will need to have an English version, but feel free to submit a translation in your own language as well. Don’t forget your contact details and your url. This is not a contest, but a place to share experiences. And if you are unsure of your writing, don’t worry because we are looking for you experiences in networking, not your expertise as a writer;-)

Articles are subject to approval and I will be looking out for spammers.

Please submit your Networking Success Stories  to: cathy@thenetworkingworkshop.com. And if you have any questions about networking, please submit them through Ask Cath! at the same email address.

Kind regards

Cathy Delhanty