While networking events generally have a business angle to them, they really are no different than a singles mixer. Everyone in attendance is there looking to meet others to make connections and start some type of business relationship. The relationship starts at the event, there is a follow up “date” and if the business relationship progresses past the first meeting, the individuals can tell people that they met at that event. Obviously most networking events are not about finding the most attractive person or how many numbers you are going to get (for most people), but it is still about meeting and interacting with some great people that can help you find what you need for your business.

Like anything else that you do, first impressions will often make or break a meeting or conversation. And when being thrown into a room with 100+ other people to network, whether it be happy hour, speed dating or pitching format, that first thing you say will often determine whether or not the person you met will want to continue the conversation and if there will be a follow up email and meeting.  Some people are just naturally comfortable walking over to others and engaging in conversation. Others like to drift over and drift into an existing conversation and let the current discussion be the icebreaker. But no matter what you try and do, there will always be at least one instance where someone comes over or you are in a situation where it is just you and someone else.

Your icebreaker or “pickup line” at these events will often be the key to your success or failure at an event. Getting someone to want to engage and network is critical. Reading a name tag and saying “So what do you do for Microsoft” is usually not very engaging and seems like you have nothing better to offer than having them just tell you their story and you deciding if it can help you.

I recently posted on Gplus to get some expert feedback on what a quality icebreaker would be and received some great responses (you can see the answers here). What I found is that there are really two different approaches people take, the no nonsense approach and the engaging approach. The no nonsense approach is predicated on the fact that people that are there have limited time and are there for the same purpose, to meet people that can help them. They are more straightforward, tell people this is who they are and what they do and if its not a match immediately, move on to the next person. This will not build relationships but rather serves the purpose of the task and event at hand.  The more engaging approach is you asking the people something about themselves, often to make it easier to find something in common or at least have a conversation that can lead to some type of discussion, even if you can’t help each other. Some of the questions people suggested included, what is your biggest challenge now, what are you looking for so I can help you and tell me a bit about what you and your company do.

While these are both good approaches depending on what you need, I think that the icebreaker needs to be looked at in the context of a conversation. There needs to be a quick icebreaker, a quick 20-30 second pitch, the conversation and how to end the conversation to move on to other people (this is usually more awkward than the icebreaker).

• Quick intro – Have your 10 second pitch ready. This should include your name, company or product you are representing at the event and maybe one tidbit about you or the company that will peak someone’s interest and want to hear more about the company or you. My name is Aron Schoenfeld and I founded Do It In Person, a new startup aiming to make these events more relevant and meaningful for attendees like us. We are looking for feedback from people that attend events to make the platform better.

• Pitch – You should go into an event with two pitches, one about you and one about your company. The other person may ask about either one and you want to have something prepared in your head so that you can talk easily about the subject; be prepared so that when you talk, you sound fluid and loose and not sound like you are reading a script. Your company pitch should have the basic info, enough so that the user can understand it and a quit bit about where your company is such as we just launched or are launching in the summer. Your pitch should give people a quick description of you, your job title and what you do for the company. Both pitches need to give enough to make people want to know more and should also be in the context of the event, perhaps even adding what your purpose at the event is.

• Closing – This is always the most awkward part of the night just like at a singles event where you try and get the persons phone number and ask if you can take them out. The first and often most important part is to know when to end the conversation. Look for the classic signs like the person you are talking to looking at their watch or phone, looking around the room or getting fidgety. When these start to happen, you are losing their interest an it is often better to wrap up and schedule a call or meeting then to continue on. It may not even be because of you, but rather they want to meet a speaker or someone else at the event. A quick wrap up and asking them for a business card is always appropriate, as is asking them what the best way to reach them is – phone or email. Make sure to say how nice it was to meet them and try and remind them of something memorable about you that you can use to remind them who you are. I always like to write down a quick note about them on the card as well to help me remember or use in the email header to get their attention.

Networking is tough and not everyone knows what they are doing. But by attending an event, everyone is putting themselves out there so the least you can do is be prepared. View it as a great way to meet people and the business will come. Once you get it down pat, you will find that things just start happening because you are active in helping others along with yourself.

Note: This is the second of 3 posts on networking. Next week’s post will deal with post event follow-ups with new connections. Our first post was on How to Choose What Networking Event To Attend. 

On any given night in New York City, there are 3 to 4 events that seem to be appropriate for me to attend. I can only imagine that for others, the number is either about the same, or even greater. Over the past few years, sites like Meetup and Eventbrite have made it easier than ever before for people to create events. Regardless of the content, the goal for most attendees is to network and meet others that share their interests. The challenge is, with the cost of the events and the time commitment to attend, how do you pick the right event to attend so that you meet the right people.

Advertising is always deceptive, especially when it comes to events. Organizers claim to have groups of 11,000 members or show a list of attendees, many of which they added themselves. While this gives you a feel for the community or event, it doesn’t tell you what you really need to know: how meaningful and relevant is to you. Just like each event has a specific purpose, you should be going in with a specific purpose and a goal to achieve it. These goals can be as broad as meeting the most people to meeting a specific person. They could be focused on hearing a particular speaker or trying to learn about an industry. Based on these goals, which may vary from event to event, you will be able to get an idea of which events you should attend.

I recently posted on Gplus asking people what they look for when searching for an event to attend. A few people commented that it is based upon who is going to be there and recommendations from friends. While I agree with these wholeheartedly, my question is more about how do you evaluate the attendees or recommendations since no two people have the same goals. Unfortunately, you often have to find out the hard way that an event isn’t for you. But even then, making the best of it can turn it into a productive night.

Three of the things I think are essential to picking an event to attend are:

Price – I am always wary of free events for two reasons. The first is that everyone signs up but not everyone attends so you never know who will actually be there. Secondly, it doesn’t create a filter where someone who shouldn’t be attending says that they aren’t going to pay to go since it’s the wrong events. A small charge to get in, usually offset by food or drinks, goes a long way to ensuring a higher quality audience.

Community – Does this event tie back to a community. I am not referring to partners because every group offers to be a media partner for the free press, but rather does this group have a Meeetup page, LinkedIn group or Facebook page that you can look at and see what kind of people are associated with it and what type of discussions and messages the members are sharing. You will learn very quickly if it is a “can I help you” community or a “buy from me” community.

Organizer – Who is the organizer for the event and what is their motivation. Unfortunately, many organizers are motivated by one of two things, money and selling their product. By emailing the event organizer and asking them for more information about the event, who they are trying to attract and getting a sense of the purpose of the event, you will have a much clearer picture of the event than an invite can give you. A good organizer will also ask you about yourself and who they can introduce you to or how they can help you. That alone will make an event meaningful as you will know which people you need to meet. It also lets you know how well the organizer knows their community. Organizers such as Graham Lawlor of Ultra Light Startups, Gary Whitehill of Entrepreneur Week and #ROOTT and Aaron Price of the NJ Tech Meetup all do a great job at this and this is one of the main reasons their communities are growing so quickly.

Obviously, for each person there will be different things to look at and look for when choosing an event but I think these three really will allow you to filter the list of events down to a smaller number of quality events for you to choose from. At the end of the day, a good networker will make the best of each event and turn it into a successful night. I would love to hear your feedback and ideas on what is important to you when you choose an event. Feel free to comment or post it on Gplus.

Note: This is the first of 3 posts on networking. Next week’s post will deal with how to effectively break the ice and approach people at an event and the last post will talk about post event follow ups with new connections. 

Networking is an essential function of any entrepreneur. It is one of the factors that make entrepreneurs not just people with ideas but part of a larger community that is always willing to help each other, make introductions and create partnerships. Investors realize this as well and are very active in the networking space either through attending events, participating by speaking or being on a panel at an event or even by sponsoring events. While networking events have evolved over the years, at the end of the day, most people are there to meet others and build their network.

As more and more groups pop up in a city via Meetup, LinkedIn, Facebook or their own websites, many of these organizers realize that they need to create events to bring their groups together so it is not just another social forum, but rather a real community. Over the last three years, we have seen an abundance of events popping up, to the point where many people stopped attending because they don’t know which events are meaningful for them. In New York City alone, there are probably three events a night seven days a week that would be worth going to.

It doesn’t stop there, even at the event, you find many people are there to meet a specific VC or investor, are service providers or just don’t know how to network. This diminishes the value of the event for other attendees and your time is valuable.

So how can people make their networking experience effective? Over the next few weeks I will be gathering feedback via Gplus.com on the three essential parts of networking and will post my thoughts along with some feedback from others. Below are the 3 items I feel are essential, hyperlinked to the discussion page.

• How do you pick the right networking event to go to?
• How do you break the ice when meeting someone at a networking event?
• How do you follow up with people you met to turn that connection into something of value?

While these items seem rather standard, I have found them to be real pain points for those who love networking. I would love to get feedback and thoughts on these areas so that my post is not just my view, but also the views of those that have these same pain points as they are networking.

One of the biggest challenges facing an entrepreneur, especially those first timers, is balancing their job that pays the bills with their desire to start a company or business. Unfortunately the reality is that starting a company costs money and bills need to be paid. This is why most people never actually get their idea beyond the idea stage. But for those who do, many need to continue in their nine to five job to support the development of their idea. The biggest question with this is not if you should do it, but how you can work both 9 to 5 and 5 to 9 and balance the two.

Starting a company is difficult. It requires a lot of research, dedication and hard work. Most people feel like they are married to their company, at least for the first few years. But when working at an office, it is very hard to keep that passion alive without causing any issues. Below are a few of the issues and suggestions for dealing with this.

Don’t bring your work to work – Most people have an initial reaction that they will bring the work from their startup to the other office and do it in their downtime. While this may be a great way to get work done and stay entertained, it is also a great way to get fired. Reality is that most startups don’t make it so you need to keep yourself in a position of being hirable. You need to use your time at your job to perform your job and use downtime like your lunch break or after hours to do your other work. For those that work better in that office environment, go in 1-2 hours early to work on your startup or idea before the workday starts.

Keep it on the down low – Many people get very excited with their startup and idea and have a hard time keeping it to themselves. It is very easy for someone to tell the co-worker they confide in. Everyone has that one co-worker to whom they bash their boss or complain how unfair the office is. People are always tempted to say that they have an idea that will be their way out of that office. People like to talk and often have another co-worker they chat with and confide in as well. As the saying goes, loose lips sink ships and all it takes is one person to let the word slip to a boss or human resources and you will find yourself working full time on your startup a lot sooner than you hoped for.

Don’t use company resources for your business – Your company’s supplies belong to your company, not your startup. Many people like to sneak mail into their company’s postage machine or take supplies home for personal use. This is not only unethical but can raise red flags. A company will tend to look the other way for a few personal letters but once you are using it for businesses, especially one that could potentially distract you from doing your job at 100% capacity, they will not look so kind on that. Additionally, resources are not just physical resources, but intellectual property as well. If you idea is in a similar space as the company you work for, be extra careful not to use proprietary research or data as you plan your company, as you will raise a lot of red flags, especially when you tell them that you are leaving to start your own company.

Establish milestones that will dictate when you quit you job or quit your idea – The easiest mistake to make when starting a business is quitting your job too soon and realizing after 4-5 months that your new startup is not ready for launch or not able to pay your bills. People save up money for a few months to allow them to leave work and have that “income” while they work on a startup and plan to have a salary or money from the startup after that to keep it going. What many people forget is that most of the money a startup makes in the first few months goes into development and other expenses like web hosting. Very rarely does a company have enough money in 3-4 months to have someone draw a salary. Founders must establish milestones that allow them to monitor when they are really ready to leave and have their company support them or find a co-founder who can handle the day to day. One specific instance I have seen recently is the 2 founders became roommates and one works full time so the other can quit their job and run the company full time. They work like a married couple, but after all, isn’t that what co-founders are?

It’s not easy being an entrepreneur while working at a 9 to 5 for someone else. It takes a lot of discipline to make sure that your dreams and vision don’t cloud your better judgment. Being out of a job with no money won’t get your startup going. But if you can find a way to balance the two jobs and use one as a means to support the other, you will head down a path that many other successful entrepreneurs have travelled.

When starting a company, entrepreneurs are usually in cost savings mode, which generally means, trying to minimize how much debt they take on personally. Even with friends and family or seed money, the initial investment goes quickly with expenses such as developers, designers, legal costs and other miscellaneous expenses. So it is extremely important that the service providers you choose provide you maximum value for your dollar.

The biggest cost for a startup is often design and development of the website. There are three avenues that are available to entrepreneurs to a developer, a technical co-founder or hiring a developer full time or hiring an outsider service provider that does web development and design. In the first two cases, you are building your company and team and you can be sure you will get maximum value from those individuals. But when choosing or hiring an outside person to do you work, it is essential that there is a relationship other than “deliver and get paid.”

There are a few essentials entrepreneurs should consider in choosing a service provider including who referred them to you or their references, price, how they work with entrepreneurs and their value add.

References are essential. You want to know that the company or individual will do quality work but more importantly, that you can work with them. I have seen many entrepreneurs hire web designers oversees because they are cheaper only to spend more in the long run because the language barrier and way that the service provider works made the process much more difficult than it really is. I also know those that spent a lot of money and never launched their site because the quality of the work was so bad that they couldn’t create a minimum viable product. Brightmap, which was recently launched by Graham Lawlor, is a great way for people to get qualified introductions to service providers. But regardless of who refers you, do your due diligence now, meet the provider, make sure the products and services being offered meet what you are looking for, so it is less painful later on.

Pricing for service providers is always an issue. Entrepreneurs generally run on a shoestring budget if they have one at all. But when looking to hire, you must balance the price versus quality and make sure that you can get a minimum viable product that works, looks good and is scalable. But remember, price isn’t everything! Using a cheaper option, especially overseas, will cause a lot of language barriers, cultural barriers and will take away much of the control of your product from you. These need to be balanced against the cost savings in your final decision.

Hand in hand with pricing is have they worked with startups before, and if so, do they have a unique structure for entrepreneurs. If you go to enough startup and entrepreneurial events, you will often find service providers who work with startups specifically and have created programs that work with the budget and timing of an entrepreneur. For instance, my company works with one of the top 5 law firms in the world, which generally means high billable hours and large bills. While that is true, the partner who handles our account works with entrepreneurs and allows us to work on a payment plan so we get the best service possible while not breaking the bank at launch. Other providers such as the Corporate Tax Network, a national accounting firm, have a special unique pricing structure made to give entrepreneurs tax consulting and tax prep at a fixed fee that varies by startup. Service providers that are already involved in this entrepreneurial community will often offer you more value and more manageable payment terms.

While the provider you chose is giving you a quality product at a price you can pay, very often your provider can offer more. Lawyers who work with startups and VC firms may provide additional value and connections that need to be factored into the selection process. Maybe they can work in an advisory capacity as well. These additional things are important to consider as they will allow you to get the most bang for your buck and help you launch and grow your company.

Finding the right service provider takes a lot of research and a lot of luck, but if done right with the proper due diligence, you will be adding a value to your team and your company that will help you with a successful launch.

I got a LinkedIn request to connect the other day from someone I have never heard of. It said I was his classmate when I went for my MBA, but I am pretty sure I never met this person before. Further confirming my suspicion was that I got a few Twitter mentions from the same person asking for my email address and for me to add them on LinkedIn so we can connect. I responded that I only connect with people I have some professional relationship with already and that they can send me an email introduction. This got me thinking about how people use social media to network and how people connect with others on social media sites. What is the value of a connection or friend? How can we measure followers and members of a circle?

After thinking about this for some time, I realized that every social media site serves its own unique purpose and they are used in different ways. While some people view it as a popularity contest and accept requests from anyone, using the sites properly will lead to increased value for you and those connected to you. Below is a listing of the sites as I see them and some guidelines to using them effectively.

1. Facebook. This site is a true social networking site for friends to share content and pictures and keep up with each others’ lives. Friend requests should only be sent to actual friends or people you have met a few times. Facebook friends do not mean you are really friends but rather want to share content. If you don’t post any content of value, you will lose your followers. And if you get a friend request, you DO NOT have to accept it. Be selective as much of your personal information is shared on this site and there is nothing wrong with not friending someone or un-friending them if they add no value.

Tip: If you have someone you want to follow, like a celebrity, but you aren’t friends with them, subscribe to their feed instead of sending a friend request.

2. LinkedIn. This site is great for managing professional relationships and tracking those who you have done or continue to do business with. It allows you to see who is connected to whom and receive recommendations from people to boost your own profile. There are many people who use this site as a business “facebook.” And they connect to people that they want to meet, instead of connecting with people they actually are professionally connected with. This dilutes the value of your professional network and makes LinkedIn just another place for content sharing. Over the last 2-3 month, I think there is more of an emphasis on using LinkedIn for group management as opposed to just building your network. I think that LinkedIn is evolving and there will be some increased functionalities over the next year that will help make this site stronger and focused. But in the short term, build up your recommendations and try and keep your connections to real connections so that they may be leveraged the way initially intended.

Tip: If you are trying to connect with someone and the request does not meet any of the criteria that LinkedIn asks to confirm how you know the person, you should not be connecting with that person.

3. Google Plus. This is the most interesting social network on the internet now. It is growing rapidly and slowly gaining in popularity, despite the fact that most people aren’t quite sure how to use it. The integration into your Gmail page is great and a excellent way to take your email contacts and turn them into connections. I happen to think that “circles” are a great way to accept all friend requests and qualify them so you can manage the content that is being shared. To me it feels a bit more like a subscribe button. I think the biggest issue with Google Plus is that it lacks a lot of the creativity and functionality of the other sites; it will be interesting to see how it evolves.

Tip: Use your circles effectively. Try and classify people properly and make sure that you tag your posts to be visible only for the circles that are appropriate.

4. Twitter. Many may argue that this should not be included in a listing of social networks as Twitter is a bit different. However with the ability to follow people, I think people use it as a means to be recognized. Most people follow people with a large following, and re-tweet, message and #ff people to grow their own following on the site. Not only does it not work in most cases, but it also drains on the quality of your twitter feed. Once you learn how to tweet effectively, it is essential that you post content that is relevant, timely and helps create a conversation. Using twitter correctly and following those who are relevant to you can be one of the best ways to gather information and knowledge. So it is imperative that it be used in a way that fosters this environment and is not a contest of how many followers you have. Remember, sites like Klout measures how far your messages reach, not how often you post or whom you follow.

Tip: You do not have to follow people who follow you. Having a large number of followers is great but you will often find that those with the most followers follow the fewest people. Only follow those whose content is interesting to you since the feeds move very quickly and you want to keep it as relevant as possible. 

The common theme with all of these is that you should not accept requests from or follow those that have no relevance to you. Less is more when it comes to connections as those few connections add value to your use of social media. Seeing your 4^th cousin once removed post pictures from when they were three may be cute but is often irrelevant and takes the place of more meaningful content. Focus on letting these sites work the way they were intended, to allow you to manage your true real life connections on the internet.

I was recently interviewed by Alexis Miller for the International Business Time Television series on entrepreneurship. See the interview below.

Whether your company is successful or not, it is exciting to tell people that you are a founder of a startup. The fact that you actually started something is more than most people can say and gives you some credibility as an entrepreneur. But the fun part comes when you need to make your business cards and you start “handing out” the titles that you will use. The titles of CEO, Chairman, Chief Revenue Officer, Chief Marketing Officer and other big name positions are always fun to give out. But what do they mean, especially when you are first building your product, and how can they affect the company in the long run.

One of the cool things about being a founder is that you will always be the founder. No one can ever take that away from you and it is a part of the company’s history. However, every other position is negotiable and very often, the founders find that they are not right for those jobs. This may not occur at the outset, but often that is because everyone wears multiple hats and works to get everything done together. In the early stages of a company, there is very little separation of duties and tasks; everyone pitches in wherever they are needed. But as the company grows, management must grow into their roles and this is when it is essential to know your strengths and weaknesses.

It is also important to remember that you can give yourself whatever title you want at the onset, but that can easily be stripped from you as your company grows. When you grow the company and take on investors, part of the due diligence they perform will be focused on the management team in place. While you may think you are right for the job of CEO because you are the founder of the company, the investment may come with you being replaced by the VC’s own CEO. Getting fired from your own company is not a pleasant experience or something that anyone ever wants, but at the end of the day, it may be essential to your company’s growth.

Knowing your role and what you do well are essential. There is a tremendous difference between having an idea and executing on it. While title and roles in the company don’t matter much at the onset, they should still be real and something that you are capable of handling and growing into as your business expands. Outsiders and clients will view you in this capacity and you always want to put the best foot forward by being able to handle your job. And there is nothing wrong with just calling yourself the founder until you have time to figure it out. At least that way you will save some money on business card printing!