Small business owners still prefer to network in person rather than using the internet, despite a boom in social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook.
A survey of over 500 entrepreneurs by Barclays revealed they would rather communicate face-to-face with potential clients, with more than 60 per cent of small business owners finding formal networking events an important way to build up useful contacts for their business.
The web was one of the least popular ways of meeting new clients, garnering just 8% of the votes, but it still marginally beat using the pub or golf club to network, some of the more traditional breeding grounds for doing deals.
Barclays has partnered with business expert Robert Craven to run a series of networking workshops from September 11 to help SMEs increase profits and improve marketing strategies.
Join our social media discussion group and share your Twitter username with other BusinessZone members. 
We're putting together a list of business owners' must-haves. 
Dragons' Den judges James Caan and Deborah Meaden and social entrepreneur Karen Darby are some of the successful entrepreneurs who feature in our exclusive videos.