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Release your inner networker

Somewhere between the playground and the conference room, we forgot how to network.

“Go back to elementary school,” networking consultant Dave Sherman said. “You would walk up to people that you’d meet, and you’d go, ‘Hi! My name’s Dave. Do you want to go play?’ ‘Oh, sure, let’s go play,’ and you’d go run across the playground.

“Somehow, somewhere, we’ve lost that ability to walk up to people and say, ‘Hi ... nice to meet you,’ ” Sherman said.

Of course, there’s more at stake now, particularly for small-business owners whose goal is to get more business.

And getting back in touch with your fearless networking side can bring side benefits such as building friendships, finding sources of information and creating your business’s own panel of experts.

You can choose whom you want to network with and how you want to build your network, said Mark Lynch, co-founder of the Associated Professionals Resources Organization, a networking group in Scottsdale, Ariz. He attends two networking events a week and tries to meet three new people each time. That gives him 288 new contacts a year.

If you leverage your contacts’ networks, your network grows exponentially, Lynch said. But you have to take the time to cultivate your network.

“Bottom line is, you have to make friends and build relationships. This is the key,” Lynch said. “You can’t have a what’s-in-it-for-me mentality.”