One of our biggest client's has seen me wee in a bucket.

Well, I presume he politely looked the other way, but we met a few years ago racing 24 foot boats that didn’t have a “head” (or toilet) on board. It means that the girls have to hide behind the sails, squat over a bucket and hope to the heavens that it doesn’t get knocked over.

But it was through sailing that I met Ron, and now he and the consultancy where he is a partner.

I used to be pretty skeptical about networking, but essentially sailing on Sydney Harbour is just that. If I’d not had a chance to prove myself as a decent person and businesswoman, I would not have had the opportunity to quote for the recurring project that we undertake with his firm. I was just lucky enough to be getting some fresh air at the same time.

Networking has enabled me to grow my business and is now officially part of our marketing plan. It's not my first love. But I have some rules that mean I get a lot out of it. For starters, I only go to seminars and events where I feel I would personally get something out of it even if I were to not meet another person there. It means that meeting people is a bonus not the aim, and I’m more relaxed.

On the other hand, there's plenty of reasons for Social Networking and how it’s good for business. Although I’d argue it should be called virtual networking.

We use Facebook to create pages for our clients, so that their raving fans can become their Facebook fans.

I use Linked In to get up-to-date contact details of contacts and I'm a big fan of the events and groups now.

My favourite tweeters provide short and sweet tips that relate to their area of expertise. Free pearls of wisdom from those I can’t afford to pay, but hopefully one day will.

I picked up my first lead via twitter recently. I was pretty excited as it felt like the time and energy was starting to pay off. The tweeter was discussing a product we sell with a friend I know, so I messaged her to let her know we were a provider of that product and would happily provide a proposal if she’d like. However it wasn’t until I went along to a networking event and met her in person that it turned into the opportunity to meet and put together an estimate for her. She’s now a prospect rather than a lead.

I believe that if you did just one or the other, you would be a lot worse off than if you did a little of both. The hard part is getting the balance.

Sometimes it's the simplest things that drive more sales.

I clicked a banner ad and arrived at this cute boutique website. But the original website was an American one and usually this results in falling in love with something online that you can't have shipped to Australia.

But this site has the simplest little icon on the top left of the site that reads "We ship worldwide". They've taken me to the top of the mountain and showed me what I CAN have.

Nothing technically difficult required. Just good design and a little thoughtfulness for those of us across the seas.