Entrepreneurship is a field driven by individuals' plans and ideas, but it's far from solitary. If you're a rising entrepreneur getting ready to develop your next big venture, you should understand that the people around you can determine the success of your project.
Building a network of helpful and knowledgeable industry insiders is a way to boost your new venture's chances from the start. MIT Sloan Executive Education entrepreneurship courses provide an ecosystem where you'll learn how to network effectively while finding yourself in proximity to interesting, plugged-in people worth connecting with.
Read more: Debunk 6 common myths about entrepreneurship.
The impact of business networking on entrepreneurs' trajectories
Networking activities among entrepreneurs are a valuable source of advice, investment, and partnerships. It's also a way to surround yourself with informal support and camaraderie, which can help you make it through the tough work of developing and promoting your new venture.
While some businesspeople assume a solitary attitude is the best, or at least the default, approach for entrepreneurs, it's truly important to build a strong professional network.
Some of the specific benefits that come from social connections with entrepreneurial peers include:
- Gaining knowledge and information: Whether your professional network is primarily made up of beginning entrepreneurs or industry veterans, you have the opportunity to gain useful insights. The former group brings an up-to-date perspective on the startup world, while the latter has decades of firsthand advice and business tips to share.
- Opening fundraising opportunities: Sometimes, the people who contribute the most to your venture don't find you through traditional channels. Social connections can bring you into contact with people who either want to fund your company or who can introduce you to funders.
- Find collaborators and partners: Are you building out a leadership team for your young company? The people in your professional network can bring their skills to the project, serving as key early partners.
- Discover potential clients: A connection made at a networking event that doesn't turn into a partnership may pay off down the line. Your peers could be potential customers who are excited to strike up budding relationships with your new business.
- Promote your company and build trust: Indirect connections forged through professional networking can pay off down the line. As your company grows, you'll need to reach out to more people in your industry to keep things running smoothly. If these people already trust you on a personal level, you're already a step ahead.
- Create a mutual support network: Entrepreneurship is demanding. There may come times when you need either material or moral support. Strong relationships with your peers can unlock this kind of aid.
Entrepreneurs who place appropriate focus on the social aspects of their work can find themselves in stronger positions than those who went it alone.
See more: Watch an MIT Sloan webinar on unlocking startup success.
How to network like a pro: Tips for founders
Effective networking is all about making authentic connections with fellow big thinkers. What does that mean in practice? You can build an impressive social circle and business network by trying the following effective networking strategies:
- Put yourself in the right place: Your opportunities to network are determined by the people around you. By seeking out gatherings and groups that attract the best and the brightest in your industry, you're on the right track. This can mean attending a corporate conference or dedicated business networking event, enrolling in executive education, or joining online networking groups for industry professionals.
- Look into business circles outside of your own: Can executives at big corporations be useful contacts for people steeped in the entrepreneurial space? Is it worth mingling with medical industry leaders at a conference when you're dedicated to the legal space? There's no harm in striking up these kinds of meaningful connections — you never know where your next big partnership will come from or who else your new friends may be able to connect you with.
- Think beyond the transactional: It's worth opening yourself to making all kinds of connections with other businesspeople, rather than just thinking about what they can offer you at the moment. Maybe a casual, advice-sharing friendship will turn into a strong professional alliance in the years ahead, or maybe it will just be good for your mental health — either way, it's worth pursuing.
Read more: See MIT Sloan Executive Education's new course for founders: The Entrepreneurship Development Accelerator.
Networking and executive education: A perfect match
MIT Sloan Executive Education is a valuable academic setting for entrepreneurs because the courses expose participants to peers who could quickly become part of a thriving personal network. Fellow course participants are a self-selected group of skilled and ambitious professionals, and the faculty is made up of the most distinguished industry leaders in their respective fields, ready to serve as mentors and deliver industry insights.
You emerge from an MIT Sloan Executive Education course knowing a group of highly engaged people in your industry who may help you for years to come. The experience of participating in the course is also a hotbed for creative collaboration, with peers and professors acting as sounding boards for your most compelling entrepreneurial ideas.
In-person courses aimed at founders like The Entrepreneurship Development Accelerator are incubators for strong partnerships and promising new concepts.
Read more: Get an insightful overview of MIT Sloan Executive Education's Entrepreneurship Development Program.
Effective networking in action: Successful outcomes for entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurs who have participated in MIT Sloan Executive Education courses have simultaneously deepened their knowledge and built networks of skilled peers and industry experts.
Becoming a member of a community such as the one around MIT Sloan Executive Education is a trait that lasts longer than the duration of a specific course, as participants can keep engaging with the university's ecosystem.
The stories of past participants show off the many faces of entrepreneurial studies and network building:
- Zora Lazarov met professionals from across fields during the Entrepreneurship Development Program (EDP), creating meaningful connections and realizing that being a founder is "not a solo journey."
- Yuval Zandbank learned how to make strong partnerships with co-founders while in the EDP.
- Breana Patel found value and a sense of community in brainstorming with helpful peers in the EDP, and her group has stayed in touch.
- Joshua Gayman built enduring social connections with fellow leaders in both the EDP and the Global Executive Academy.
Ready to deepen your commitment to networking?
Enrolling in focused, high-level executive education offerings like the Entrepreneurship Development Program or Entrepreneurship Development Accelerator is an opportunity for betterment on two levels. The course itself delivers the latest thinking on entrepreneurial excellence, while the interactions with peers and faculty enable participants to build connections and networks that can last for years and assist with many pieces of the entrepreneurial journey.
Being a founder can be lonely, but it doesn't have to be. In fact, the smoothest journeys from big ideas to successful launches tend to involve support from within the entrepreneurial space and beyond it. These journeys are incubated in the inspiring space of the MIT Sloan classroom.
Learn more about the Entrepreneurship Development Program or enroll today.