Networking, does it really make an impact on your business, or is it just something that is nice to have, or something that you make yourself do, but can be a little awkward?

Earlier this month we launched a very reasonably priced £2.50 a month to be a member of the Blue Stockings Society. If you don’t know, I co-created this society over 7 years in response to finding the networking situation in 2014 just a little too dry and boring for my liking!

I’d left corporate and didn’t want to feel like I had to wear a suit, thrust business cards at people and have long rambling conversations with people I didn’t want to do business with (no offence!). So the Blue Stockings Society was created as a counter to that. A place where I could meet women of a similar mindset who also wanted to build successful businesses and wanted to talk about the strains of childcare, periods and menopause on their businesses.

So I got to thinking, what benefits have I got from networking over the years? Has it really made a difference to my business? And ultimately how has it helped my bottom line, because any business decision we make has to have a good return on investment right?

So literally here is the difference it has made to my business. And honestly when I started to put this together I was shocked in how much of my business can be attributed to networking and I’d say about 2/3rds are due to the connections I’ve made in the Blue Stockings Society.

Networking is a game changer!

So I’d say about 70% of my clients have come from connections in the Blue Stockings Society, the rest are from other networks, speaking at conferences, google searches and social media.

ROI – £160k

My lecturing work at university came through a connection I’d made at Blue Stockings and the other network I used to run First Tuesday

ROI - £12k

My involvement in the My Way Project came through a connection in the Blue Stockings

ROI – winning Ingenuity19 - £10k prize money towards project. Plus, about another £5k ish. And I became a Director of a new Social Enterprise The My Way Project this year!

A fantastic project with a local sculptor came from running a workshop for The Big House which came from my networking connections.

ROI - £7k

Mentoring start-ups and running workshops at The Hive came through a networking connection from First Tuesday and Blue Stockings

ROI - £4k

Mentoring established business under a European Regional Development Fund Project at Nottingham Trent University, yep from those networking connections!

ROI - £15k

Running workshops & mentoring for The Big House and Creative Quarter in Nottingham, Derby and Lincoln

ROI - £10k

Running workshop across the UK & Ireland for an educational business from a contact in Blue Stockings

ROI - £2.5k

A potential new project starting in the new year from my networking at First Tuesday and Blue Stockings

ROI – between £15k and £45k

And that’s just the work I can remember right now. Now obviously some of these are there estimates, but I’ve tried my best to calculate them as honestly as possible by going through my invoicing system.

And so far it’s about £220,000 worth of work from my networking in Blue Stockings and a little bit from First Tuesday.

So I’ve no doubt that around 2/3 of my entire income over the past 7 years is directly attributed to networking!

So if you’re looking to build your business in 2021 spending £1.10 a month on the Blue Stockings network could, quite possibly, be the best business decision you’ve ever made!

Join the Blue Stockings for £2.50 a month!

And sorry to the guys reading this – but it really is interesting to see the value the networking adds to businesses – it really is all about the relationships!