As a the National Sales Coach for the largest mortgage broking group in Australasia as well as being a business owner myself, one of the most common questions that I get from small business owners all the time is: "How could I network myself better to gain more clients?"

I am in a networking group that meets weekly. We are a group made up of entrepreneurs. We give leads to one another and learn about each others businesses as well. We recently decided that we needed to grow our group and decided that we would try MeetUp.

Networking is an important task that every person should consider doing. This can create many new and exciting business opportunities, while also getting to know different people that can help your life out in many other ways that you didn't think possible.

Most areas have local business clubs where business owners and company directors get together, either in the morning or in the evening to showcase their company, have a general talk about what is happening and then to pass leads between each of the members.

One of the most common reasons for the divide between who is successful at networking and those who are not, is those that are successful follow up. By following up I don't mean saying hello again at the next networking event, I mean actively keeping in contact with the people you meet outside of the networking event.

We all know the value of attending business networking events so that we can meet potential clients and referral partners. We bring along a stack of business cards, and we've been taught to collect as many as we can from other attendees, right?