Last week I was at Catapult in London – a conference about launching your business in the US – and it was a very good networking experience.

Talking about networking, social networking, which of course is very hot these days, it is starting to turn into something so much more than just playing around on the internet. On one of the panels at the conference a panelist said that

“Social networking is turning into Business networking”

And I couldn’t agree more. Not only online, but social networking IRL is one of the best ways to do business.

We would not be where we are today without doing serious business networking. I think that how it is done is one of the main differences when comparing European entrepreneurs to US ditto. In Sweden when people do business networking it is almost always about making money or connections to people that will help you make money. What I have experienced these last few trips to London, but also going to conferences with great entrepreneurs is that, there, the focus of business networking is helping each other.

People are much more happy to help you and give you advice, rather than focusing on how they can make money off of you. This difference might seem marginal, but is an essential detail in the “new” Business networking that is starting to occur. I guess one could say that the sharing trends of social networking and open source are finally coming to business networking. By helping each other I believe we are creating a collective wisdom of business.

So, I believe that by surrounding yourself with great entrepreneurs that are willing to share their knowledge is a key to success in doing business in the future. But it is important that you are as willing to help them, as you are eager to get advice. With this said, I’m happy to give advice, for free, to anyone who would want some.