Does Networking Pay?

It was yet another enjoyable and productive day at Parmasters Kitchener-Waterloo. As with most days, I started with a quick review of the newspaper. Then it was off to my weekly breakfast with the good Mr. Bill Waters of We-Create fame. We meet almost weekly, two entrepreneurs commiserating over the previous week’s events. (I’m joking about the “commiserating” part, of course. Mostly. ;))

The bulk of the day was spent communicating with shareholders and future shareholders. That’s the focus right now, finalizing our financing.

Earlier this evening I attended an event put on by the Greater Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber of Commerce. It’s a monthly networking event. I made several new contacts. I often debate the usefulness of attending such events. At this point, as I’m building the business, and searching for certain key suppliers, these events do allow me to meet several candidate suppliers and quickly assess their offering.

As for generating revenue, I don’t believe such networking events are a particularly effective use of my time. We may try a booth at one or two of these events and measure the success. I’m sure we could generate some traffic, and then convert that traffic into revenue. I’m just not sure the revenue will warrant the investment.

We have also volunteered to host one of these networking events early in 2008. This will allow us to showcase our amazing golf training center to all attendees, and provide lots of tours. That means a lot of traffic, and a lot of revenue. And the investment will just be a little more than a booth. So, the return should be justified. We will measure everything, of course, to determine whether or not the event was a success.

I also tidied up my office today. I find that a neat and tidy space is a productive space. While I generally keep my office quite tidy, there are times that it gets away on me. The last couple of weeks were such a time. But now, once again, a place for everything, and everything in its place.