Entrepreneurs: stop networking and showing off and get back to work!

Getting your startup in the newspaper is cool. You can call your parents and they will be proud. Who knows, someone might even read it and become a customer.

Attending networking events is cool too. You get to meet people, exchange information and who knows, you might even meet a customer.

Meeting with other entrepreneurs to drink coffee is great. You can exchange experiences and maybe even become partners. You might even convert the other entrepreneur to become a customer!

In the end, the customer is all that counts. The three hours spent at a networking event could also be invested in emailing your customers. How many customers could you talk to personally and give a great impression of your company?

How much time does it take to do the newspaper interview, and who reads it? Does it target your customers or is it just to show off to your parents?

How about those endless meetings with your fellow entrepreneurs? How much coffee can a person drink? Unless you see a potential partnership maybe you should invest that hour in doing some helpdesk work?

Being involved with a startup is awesome. It is exciting, thrilling and an adventure. You get to talk to all sorts of interesting people and work on your dream. You need to have a good pitch and know how to tell a story. You network, talk to journalists and investors but at some point you are going to do sales and reach customers.

Being the hottest ticket on some conference is cool, but it doesn’t pay the rent. Being featured on some well read blog, like this one, is great and might get you some traffic, but it is a means to an end. The amount of press you get isn’t something you want to brag about to your investors, unless you can show them it converts to actual sales.

In the end, all you should aim for is growing your business. The pitching, networking and attention from the press is all nice and can help your business. But be careful not to lose yourself in it.

So stop networking, showing off and prancing around and start attracting customers and make some money.