Ever heard 'I'd love to do more networking but I don't have the time'?

If you don't have or make the time, you will not and cannot network. If you do not network you will not make the contacts you need to increase your influence and win more business.

Let's assume you think networking in all its many forms (online and offline) is a valuable way to achieve your goals. How good are you at finding the time to do it?

I've taught thousands of people to be professional networkers. Here are my top ten tips for making the time to network...

1. Value Networking. If you don't see the reason why you're doing it, you won't make it a priority. For many people who struggle to make the time to network, their heart is not in networking anyway. If that's you, either rediscover your 'reason why' or choose another way to generate the leads and contacts you need, such as advertising or cold calling. If networking is going to work for you, you have to make some time and make it a priority.
2. Do the Numbers. 1 event a week X 5 good contacts X 40 weeks a year X 5 years = 1000 contacts. That's real people that won't come and knock on your door otherwise. So how else are you going to meet the people, make the connections, source the leads and build the reputation you need to be successful?
3. Quit the Excuses. I can hear you say that you're too old, too young, too busy, too junior, too senior, too inexperienced, too experienced, too poor or too rich to network. Or you're female/male, black/white, educated/ignorant. There's nowhere to network. There's no events near you. So network online. Run your own events. For every excuse you can give me for not doing it, I can find you 10 people with 10 times more possible excuses who have still made it happen.
4. Get Organised. A little planning goes a long way! Put the event you want to attend in your diary and work everything else around it. Unlike the amateur networkers who 'wait and see if they will be free', which of course they never are. Prioritize, plan your day, develop discipline - these are what the great networkers do. There are loads of great time-management books. Here's the best one>>
5. Use Technology. I spent an hour networking in an airport recently. I was doing email follow ups and connection requests for online networks. With a PDA, iPhone, Blackberry, iPad... three are so many gadgets that are portable offices. And all are great for reaching out and keeping in touch.
6. Play to Your Strengths. If you like to spend a lot of time in front of a computer, do your networking online. If you're on the road a lot, embrace technology to keep in touch. If you have parenting duties morning and evening, look for lunchtime networking events. If you have hobbies or sports, network at the gym, on the golf course and the health club. If you can't spare an hour at one stretch, invest 6 lots of 10 minutes throughout the day to make phone calls, write networking emails and search the online networks.
7. Be Accountable. Hook up with a colleague, friend or networking buddy, You're more likely to attend somewhere if you've agreed to go with someone. Nobody likes letting other people down. When you know that someone is expecting you to be somewhere, you somehow find the time to be there.
8. Be Ruthless. What's taking up your time? Really? Is it the boring, life-sucking people that drain you of energy rather than fill you with inspiration? Is it the 30 hours of TV you watch every week? Is it that long commute or the reading of newsapers? or is it that you just can't say 'no'? Whatever it is, cut it out or cut it down. It's taking time away from the activities that really count, like your networking.
9. Increase Your Skills. When you're poor at networking, you have to do more of it to make it work. Logical, right? But you'd be surprised how many people don't invest in their own personal development and become better networkers. Good networking is replicable. It's coachable. It's doable! So increase your skills so that you can do twice the networking in half the time. That's how you make the time for networking!
10. Be Strategic. When you spend your valuable time talking to the wrong people in the wrong conversations, you're wasting your most precious resource. The pro networkers I work with know what to say, where to say it, who to say it to and when to say it. They do stuff on purpose. They make their networking time count. They make the juice worth the squeeze!

Just by making some small changes and getting more organized, you can easily make an hour or two each week to do some networking. It's amazing how much you can get done with a little plannind and discipline. So what's stopping you from networking?