Networking is the key to growing a successful business

Starting a new business is always a daunting prospect but according to Sanjay Lobo, Vice President Marketing at Vistaprint, having a “fearless attitude” can see you through the initial phases of uncertainty.

He cites the case of one Vistaprint customer Susan Jane May. At the age of 50, she set up her own florist from home, Country Garden Floristry, specialising in bespoke wedding flowers.

Four years later and business is blooming, something Mr Lobo puts down to “drive, determination and the guts to take a risk”.

Susan, 54, from Sudbury in Suffolk, now has two freelancers working with her, she has built a studio at her home and orders are growing faster than the flowers used in her bouquets.

But it wasn’t always this way. Having made the leap to become her own boss, after years of working for others, Susan only had a shoe-string budget to work from and she needed clients.

And Mr Lobo believes this first stumbling block – sewing the seeds for new business - often simply comes down to a lack of networking or a lack of confidence to create leads.

It can happen to anyone, even when a business owner feels totally confident in their own professional abilities to do the job in hand or in Susan’s case, her green fingers.

New research from Vistaprint shows more than half of Brits (56%) would be more inclined to use a service from someone they have met face-to-face but more than a quarter of small business owners (26%) do not network because they believe it isn’t relevant to them.

And it found a fifth also admit to not having the confidence to approach a new prospect in person.

Mr Lobo said: “36 per cent of small business owners say drumming up new business is the least favourite part of their job, but simple networking is an effective way to gain new business and is just about having the right tools and building relationships.”

Those tools normally include business cards to hand out to prospective clients you meet directing them to a website where information about your company is simply displayed. Other options are flyers, postcards or even items like calendars for a more personalised touch.

Mr Lobo added: “Susan used our website product to create her own site to support her great networking. She admits she’s not tech savvy but found it easy to learn. She created a site from scratch within two months and the website has been a great way of promoting and showing off what she creates. She has even linked it to Facebook and Twitter.

“She also uses Vistaprint’s business cards to stand out from the crowd and has used our service to print small postcards to send out to wedding venues. And because she can do it at any time of the day or night she finds the convenience one of the best aspects when her time is short.”

“With the right professional networking tools to hand, any business owner could have a future that looks as rose-y as Susan’s does.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Vistaprint.co.uk .