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Running head: THE IMPORTANCE OF BUSINESS NETWORKING

The Importance of Business Networking
Rodolfo Sanchez
University of Texas at El Paso










Author Note
Rodolfo Sanchez, undergraduate student; majoring in International Business and Finance,
with a minor on Math, expecting to graduate in year 2017 in the University of Texas at El Paso.



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THE IMPORTANCE BUSINESS NETOWKRING
Business, the world of communication, negotiation and contacts, have you ever wondered
how many successful business people became what they are today, such as Bill Gates, the more
than successful computer engineer executive and founder of Microsoft, or Carlos Slim, a multi
billionaire business magnate, owning a conglomerate variety of businesses all around the world,
or maybe Warren Buffet the biggest philanthropist and business magnate of the United States
and mostly in the world. How did these people get to the position they had? Yes, they needed an
exaggerated amount of work, disposition and energy, but most of the successful business owners
out there, are mainly based on how well your contacts are formed, how many people you actually
and personally know that can and are willing to help you in times of need. So lets talk about the
relationships of business people, the social aspect of their success and their communication
skills, to get their necessary and crucial tools to their personal future.
In this paper, the most important topic to debate will be; the importance of business
networking. We will be analyzing several articles, books, and fragments of journals to evaluate
how this self-encouraged skill is crucial and necessary in the business world, and we will
increase our knowledge in how networking helped most of the successful leaders and CEOs of
all times by explaining their relationship with others, where they lived, who they lived with and
more, and we will debate whether it is more important to success on your own or by others. I will
be debating to use the business network other that anything else. But first lets introduce the idea
of business networking.
Networking, developing and using contacts made in business for purposes beyond the
reason for the initial contact. A definition given by the website entrepreneur.com, pretty self-
explanatory, but lets go into detail on what a business networker does, or how he or she does it.
For entrepreneurs and business people in general, climbing your way up to the top will be
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difficult, especially if you are going for a big jump, and want to open a business, or be the head
of a corporation, but, are they willing to do it by themselves struggling and fighting way too
much, or are they willing to go search some extra help, with experience, maybe with the
necessary contacts to do so? Obviously, as humans we look for the easiest way to go, maybe
some people like the struggle, but if you have the option of an easiest way, the odds of you
taking it are really high. As business people, some entrepreneurs and leaders use their necessary
contacts, friends, family, and even boy or girlfriends to get what their want. It could be a favor,
or maybe these people did something for them and now they search for an even and clear
account. But this game never ends, if you do a favor, as a good networker, you should return it, if
you ask you give, if you give you ask, it goes on and on, and that is how business people keep it
interesting.
Lets begin the position of the paper by declaring the importance of it. Since the pursuit
of happiness and success by making money is what most of what business people look for, they
are willing to do what it takes to get it. And since the beginning of business school, one of the
most important characteristics teachers, colleagues, and tutors give to you is the networking skill
in the business world. Now that we have covered the definition and means of it, I personally
think and by a fact that business communication and networking is the most important thing that
a business man or women can develop throughout his or her career. Now most of us will ask
why, and that is a very important question since we are dealing with the factors of, education,
talents, abilities skills, and more. Why does networking mean so much to a business student?
Why building relationships now, can help you in the future, and how? Lets emphasize on how it
has become important to business people, and how has it helped them throughout their careers.
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According to William Byham, in his article Business Networking can be taught he
mentions how it can help you to grow yourself and your business career. He says Business
networks facilitate the sharing of information that helps individuals and teams avoid repeating
work (Byham 2010), meaning that the more you expand your network, the easier it is to
accomplish your goal, even if it is a simple task or building a whole corporation, why is that?
The answer to that is simple, the more people involved within your network, active, and willing
to help the easier it gets to gather resources, and we all know that we need the raw material to get
to our final product, so lets do it by building the networking. Now here is a fragment of some
words Mr. Klerk said; Business networking is described as the process whereby time and
money are invested in building, adapting, developing, relating, combining and understanding the
contributions of different role-players (Klerk 2008), we see how these two writers talk about the
point we have already covered, and I repeat it because it is crucial to network more than anything
else. Sometimes is not only about who you know, is about who knows YOU, and usually is about
doing business with someone you know and trust right?
Some researchers argue about the importance of it, and the Balance between
intelligence, creativity and resources (Lacho 2010), since we grew up with the idea that the
more hard work we put into our lives the best our lifestyle and quality of life. People and
different communities argue about how it is unfair that some people born in the richness and how
they keep rich because they know all the important people. Well yes, it is important to at least
know your business school, and it is crucial as well that we touch a little bit about school and
academics, but a smart guy is nothing without people around him. There is a co-relation between
the wise and the smart you are and how you apply that knowledge obviously, if you are smart or
intelligent and you are a hard worker, you must know that networking will help you reach your
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goals easier, faster and safer, so you know it is important, therefore you will do it because you
need and have to. We need to know the difference between school smart, and street smart, which
are two terms that I will personally talk about on the next paragraph to get a better idea of how it
works.
Once in my economics class, we touched the point of networking, and the professor said:
It is important to be academically smart, but it is crucial to be street smart. Here, he refers to
the fat of knowing how to move in the real world, knowing what to do, how to do it, when, who
to talk to, when to, and every detail possible that makes our performance in the business world
pretty outstanding. Being smart, or in this case school smart, is going to show everybody else
how we manage to do our best on our classes and activities on school. But furthermore, being
street smart will show us the path we might want to choose, or the way we want to go, for
example, if we get straight As, that will show our dedication to school, but what if that kid
doesnt know how to move him or herself in the real world. Being street smart will guarantee the
abilities and necessary skills to succeed by our own. We might not choose the smartest kid in the
room, but the one who seeks success among others. (Collins 2001), and by those words we can
tell that only graded point average will take you somewhere but not everywhere.
The more people owe you favors, the greater the necessity of contacting them (Klerk
2008). Klerk talks about important facts in his journal about the relationships as a manager, and
the importance of it in South Africa. He goes over some points mentioning the networking pros
and cons. And as we mentioned earlier, yes, you need to know your stuff in order to succeed, but
you need to know your people as well. I, myself, have a theory which I call remember and be
remembered, and it says that, the more people you remember, and make an impact on, the more
they will remember you, therefore, the more they remember you the bigger the space you occupy
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on their heads, and the more present they will have you in their lives. A theory I developed
throughout my last year of high school and my first year of college. I base my theory on the fact
that the best of a networker I get, the greater the chance I will be remembered, and it has worked
out for me this past years.
To conclude and finalize this argument of the importance of a network, and the ability to
network over academics, I will like to face the fact that social networking can make a difference,
a difference in your salary, in your lifestyle and therefore in your happiness. And we all are
looking for happiness somewhere right? So lets move aside the stress of academic performance
just a little bit and focus on knowing and comprehending people in general, because, you never
know when you enemy from high school can be of usage, or when your neighbor will be your
lawyer, maybe your ex girl or boyfriend save your life on an open heart operation. Network, and
succeed, and remember to remember and be remembered.













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References
ACQUAAH, M. (2011). BUSINESS STRATEGY AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN
FAMILY BUSINESSES IN GHANA:: THE ROLE OF SOCIAL NETWORKING
RELATIONSHIPS. Journal Of Developmental Entrepreneurship, 16(1), 103-126.

Byham, W. C. (2010). BUSINESS NETWORKING CAN BE TAUGHT. T+D, 64(5), 64-68.
Collins, J. C. (2001). Good to great: why some companies make the leap--and others don't. New
York, NY: Harper Business.

Inks, S. A., Schetzsle, S., & Avila, R. A. (2012). EXPLORING THE USE OF BUSINESS
SOCIAL NETWORKING TOOLS IN SALES: CURRENT PERCEPTIONS AND
FUTURE EXPECTATIONS. Marketing Management Journal, 22(1), 1-16.

Klerk, S. S., & Kroon, J. J. (2008). Business networking relationships for business success.
South African Journal Of Business Management, 39(2), 25-35.

Lacho, K. J., & Marinello, C. (2010). HOW SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS CAN USE SOCIAL
NETWORKING TO PROMOTE THEIR BUSINESS. Entrepreneurial Executive, 15127-
133.