19/05/2026
Is your business networking working?
Don't confuse loads of activity with success. If your ‘busyness’ isn't generating business, something needs to change. Don't get me wrong, when I started working for myself instead of someone else, I attended every event I could get to. I was like a rash. I got noticed but I didn't get much business. People would say you'd go to the opening of an envelope and I was so naive, I took it as a compliment.
I felt stressed about walking into rooms full of strangers, starting conversations with people I didn't know, getting my message across in the hope the people I met would give me work. I gave out business cards like confetti, and I gathered business cards from everyone I spoke to. My massive collection of names, phone numbers and organisation names that sat in boxes, or wrapped in rubber bands on the shelf in my office was my proof of concept that my networking was worthwhile. I knew loads of people and loads of people knew me. In my head I was doing well. I got some successes but not a lot. Not enough to make a strong business.
I went to a Chamber of Commerce event and arrived late. Walking into a room filled with 100+ local movers and shakers terrified me. I mooched around pretending to be busy looking at the delegate list and wondering who I should speak to and how to open a conversation. These days, I'd have been on my mobile phone looking as though I was moving and shaking as well, but this was long before mobile phones were a thing. The days when people really spoke to each other. We'd all moved on from the slates and chalk days, but computers, mobile phones and tablets were yet to be in every business, every home and every pocket or handbag.
At the end of the meeting my name was pulled out of the hat to do a five-minute spotlight presentation at the next meeting. Oh, joy of joys! True to form from my school of Architecture days, I left my preparation so late that I was still writing my script as I was being introduced. My mouth was dry. My heart was racing. My mind was in turmoil.
Just as I'd struggled to start conversations, I was blank about how to start my presentation. Someone else presented before me. And then a second presenter. Finally it was my turn. I stumbled forward with a piece of A4 paper with my handwritten scribble. I began to shake and the draft from the paper in my hand got so strong that it blew a few people in the front row back into the crowd behind them.
Then I spoke. " Hello everyone, my name is Tony Altham and the last time I had this much fun, I was in my dentist's chair having a root canal filling!"
I got a laugh, but more importantly I got breathing space. I got time for my heart to slow down at least a little and I was able to continue speaking.
The outcome of that 'presentation' was that someone who was in the room and witnessed what I believed to have been a disaster, contacted me two years later with some work. He said he remembered my presentation. I didn't say that I'd been trying to forget it for two years.
It was just one of my many networking experiences and valuable lessons in what to do and how to do it.
Where am I now?
Now, I help business owners turn inconsistent sales into predictable referrals.
People come to me when they’re putting in the hours and showing up to networking events, but the results are inconsistent, and the pressure for sales starts to build.
They know they need a better way to grow their business, but they’re not sure what to change.
By building the right relationships and using a structured approach to networking that creates a steady flow of referrals, you can win more business and enjoy running your business again.
Why am I sharing this?
Because networking for business isn’t about the number of contacts we have but the quality of the relationships we build. Skills can be taught and once learned they become a gift that keeps on giving.
Too many people see time networking as a cost to their business. It’s something they come away from their business to do. It's something they do when sales are dropping and they need more orders.
Networking should be a profit centre. Done well, and with purpose it will be exactly this.
So, here’s a question to ponder. Is your networking working?
If not, what needs to change and what will it mean for you, your family, your company and your life, when it does?
