Take part in alumni activities for networking and business growth

Graduates of schools with strong alumni associations get ahead of the pack easily. PHOTO | FILE 

By EDWARD OMETE

In Summary

• A common pitfall for start-ups is that they tend to focus on the business forgetting this important aspect of networking. Networking offers an avenue of not just meeting past friends but also creating business opportunities.

Brotherhood strong,” the motto of one of the stronger local alumni association reads. The organisation has for years been engaged in social activities for its members but now seeks to translate this strong network into an outlet of business ideas.

It is creating a fund for welfare, offer mentorship for their start-ups and also open doors with alumni higher up in the business food chain. The importance of such organisations cannot be overemphasised. Depending on what education institutions one went to, gaining business traction through such forums is recommended.

If you run a start-up, two things are constantly on your mind: how to increase your customers and profit margins. The two are intricately interlinked and growth usually involves expansion and needs financial resources.

A common pitfall for start-ups is that they tend to focus on the business forgetting this important aspect of networking. Networking offers an avenue of not just meeting past friends but also creating business opportunities.

That said, if your networking isn’t translating to increased net-worth, you need to stop it. Does networking in alumni associations help in business?

A question arises as to why start-ups whose founders are from certain institutions like Harvard, Yale, Stanford... have easier access to capital than similar enterprises with founders from other institutions.

It helps that most of these ventures are founded by brilliant people and their ideas are usually well thought through. That alone, however, is not reason enough. There are many other good ideas out there that don’t attract as much funds.

One key observation is that such institutions tend to have strong alumni associations and traditions. In some instances almost cult-like. Because they are highly competitive in the selection of their students, these institutions guarantee to a high degree the calibre of their students. This means that vouching for one another is much easier.

Locally, this aspect of alumni institutions as business vehicles hasn’t previously been strong. But this is changing.

Depending on your area of study the intensity of associations tends to vary. A general observation is that Business Schools tend to have much more receptive and rewarding associations than others: perhaps because they also have more entrepreneurs as members.

An entrepreneur from a Business School offers his experience.

Half-hour encounter

His enterprise was seeking capital to scale up and intensify its operations. Numerous visits to banks were unsuccessful as his idea was still in its infancy and deemed “risky”. At a conference, he sat next to a stranger and as they talked, it turned out they both had one thing in common: alumni of the same business school.

A lunch meeting was scheduled where the start-up founder detailed his idea to his new acquaintance who it turns out was the director of a venture capital firm. The rest is history. With a little advice and fine-tuning of his plans, he got the funds and ceded a stake of his business.

In this example, a brief half-hour encounter with a stranger opened up doors to an opportunity that would otherwise have taken years to come through. Make networking an important component of your business strategy.