The secrets behind successful networking for female business owners

Being proactive and establishing a strong network benefits every entrepreneur. Whether you are looking for mentoring, for support or inspiration from fellow business owners or you want to share your thoughts and worries, or successes and failures with like-minded business owners. You may have decided to share your wealth of experience and become a mentor for younger entrepreneurs. In my eyes, men and women network differently, so, what are the secrets behind successful networking amongst female business owners?

Being efficient

Women who rise to the top think strategically and spend a long time thinking about how they spend their time. Weighing up which of the myriad of tasks on their desk need to be put lower on the list. Don’t be so engrossed in your daily business that you ignore the necessity of networking.

Being nimble

When people network, relationships grow stronger and more interwoven over time. Successful female networks are fluid. While we hold on to the long-term familiar business friends and colleagues, we are also open to initiate new connections. After all, time doesn’t stay still. And all entrepreneurs know, if you don’t reinvent yourself and your business model regularly and move with the times, then your business will not grow from strength to strength. You need to recognise, or even foresee, the trends and stay flexible. So stay nimble and be open to meeting new people.

Being energetic

Effective female networkers set themselves apart by demonstrating both competence and warmth, both intelligence and emotional intelligence. Authenticity is the name of the game. So don’t downplay your knowledge, skills, and accomplishments, instead use humour, presence and small gestures to signal caring and positivity, employ active listening skills to spur creative thinking among your peers. Don’t be one of those networkers who spends half an evening just talking about themselves. Monologues are so out of fashion!

Being supportive

That’s where – for me - VdU comes into the picture in Germany. VdU was founded in 1954 and has been supporting and nurturing female entrepreneurship in Germany for 70 years. By cultivating a trustful environment for members to exchange their experiences, success stories, failures and to discuss topics at eye level, VdU members can benefit from each other’s expertise and insights. VdU is often to be found on the political scene talking with politicians thus lending its 1200+ members an active and effective political voice.

That is one side of the story, the other side of the story is the supportive role the members play for each other. One of the very special aspects of VdU is the support we members give each other: There is no jealousy, there is no gloating. There is just respect, friendship, best practice sharing and inspiration. Not to mention laughter and a good glass of wine.

Since 2011, I have been networking at Verband deutscher Unternehmerinnen e.V.

It’s probably best not to attempt to count the number of hours I’ve spent at events with my female entrepreneur sisters, nor to count how many countries I have visited with them on delegation trips to exchange with female entrepreneurs the world over. But I have to say: I have loved every minute. It’s my life elixir. And I can’t imagine my business world without it.

Want to give it a try? Sign up for a free trial membership: www.vdu.de

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