8.1 Building and Connecting to Networks
Learning Objectives
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
- Define networking and describe its role in entrepreneurship
- Describe networking opportunities
- Describe local and trade organization networking opportunities
- Identify nonprofit and governmental agencies offering networking opportunities
When you begin thinking about your new and exciting entrepreneurial venture, you may feel somewhat like the citizens of Key West did many years ago—isolated. No matter which way you turn, you eventually come to the end of your limited community, and what you have is not enough. You can either sit on the beach and dream about what could be or commence working on building personal and professional connections to broaden your scope and improve the depth of relationships with those individuals who will assist you in becoming a successful entrepreneur. Now is the time to start building bridges and connecting yourself with the greater business community. Networking is about building bridges not about collecting tolls.
Entrepreneur In Action
Colonel Sanders and Building Connections
Harland David Sanders, the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), was a successful entrepreneur who personally experienced and understood the value of roadways and customer access. Sanders, better known as “Colonel” Sanders, owned a successful Shell service station with a small restaurant. He perfected his recipe for fried chicken and added it to his menu. Demand from satisfied customers soon exceeded seating capacity. To increase customer capacity, he purchased a building across the street that had a larger seating area. Business was steady and profitable until the new interstate system bypassed his location. Sanders lost his connection to his customers and closed his business. He did not give up, however.
He reestablished a connection with an acquaintance in Salt Lake City, Utah, who became the first KFC franchisee. With immediate success in Utah, Sanders began a nationwide campaign to connect with other successful restaurants and signed them on as franchisees. Eventually, Sanders formed a network of restaurants across the country that sold his chicken and grew a market that could never have been developed by one person in one location. In 2019, KFC had over 21,000 locations in 130 countries (www.kfc.com/about).
Sanders took his personal experience of losing easy customer access to his business and applied it to building a network of franchises where customers, across the United States and on multiple continents, could purchase his chicken. Just as tourists, residents, and businesses in Key West need roads and bridges to connect them to their destinations and suppliers, entrepreneurs need connections and networks to get supplies from their vendors and products to their customers.
Networking
For an entrepreneur, networking is finding and establishing relationships with business professionals with whom you can exchange informa