Business Networking: Pros and Cons Part I

"Networking is an extremely powerful and effective tool when growing any business.  It is having a sales force without paying for a full time staff, launching an advertising campaign without having a marketing budget, and establishing yourself as an expert in your field without having to become a media darling.  The basic goal is to provide professionals, resources, and clients to networking members without incurring outrageous costs.  Listed here are a review of the most common networking resources and how to implement them into your own business."

Friends, Family AND CLIENTS
 

PRO:  Family, Friends Clients are the most common resource for any new business owner to tap into.  They have a history with you, know what you are capable of, and can vouch for your character, thus giving you a “foot in the door.”  Another bonus is that they truly want to help you do whatever they in order for you to succeed.

CON:  The people who care the most are often the biggest naysayers when it comes to venturing out on your own.  They will be the first to doubt your ability and determination, and the first to come down on you should you fail to live up to their expectations and fulfill the promises they made on your behalf.  They want you to be “safe”…and starting a new business is anything but safe.

MAKING IT WORK:  Be sincere when asking for help from friends and family.  Also, be specific when asking them for what you need.  When they come through for you, send them thank you cards, and keep them up to date on how your business is growing.  To keep sending people your way, they want to know that they are actually helping you, that you are fulfilling your promises, and that your business is growing.  Lastly, take all of their advice with a grain of salt.  Some advice will make sense, but other bits will go against the grain.  Thank for their advice and referrals, but stick to your instincts.

PREVIOUS CLIENTS

PRO:  Previous Clients already have a history with you.  They will be glad to see you striking out on your own; they will be willing to let you solicit to them; and they will be willing to help you with advice and referrals for getting off the ground.

CON:  This group can be difficult to win away from your previous company since they have a history with that business as well.   Also, they might possibly be a little jealous of your entrepreneurial spirit and thus a bit reluctant to see you succeed where they might fear to travel.

MAKING IT WORK:  Be attentive and offer excellent customer service.  Call them periodically and ask how you might be of assistance.  Ask for referrals whenever possible.  Get friendly with their salesmen, managers and other employees and offer incentives to these people for buying from you or referring business to you.  Send cards and gifts on special occasions to let them you value them.  This kind of customer service will win their loyalty and get them to make referrals.

PROFESSIONAL NETWORKING GROUPS

PRO:  A Networking Group can offer encouragement, support, and a ready-made clientele list.  They will hire you to accomplish tasks for their business.  They will make referrals when you prove your worth.  They will act as your sales force and vouch for you even when the customer has not met you.  They will be loyal to you before being loyal to other acquaintances because of the groups existing terms of cooperation.  In effect, they will be your best clients, your respected colleagues, and eventually your friends.

CON:  A networking group will test your mettle first.  If you do not prove your worth, they will not send new business your way.  If you prove to be reliable, they will boot you from the group and not refund your fees.  Many times, they will only refer clients to you if you do the same for them.  Also, it will cost money to join a networking group.

MAKING IT WORK:  Make yourself valuable by doing the following:  Treat professional networkers as valued customers and respected colleagues; always stand by your word; prove your reliability time and again; go above and beyond what is expected of you; volunteer for status in the group; and refer as many clients to others as possible.  By doing so, your networking group will feel the need to repay you in kind and your client list will grow exponentially.  Write off any associated fees as advertising expenses.

(Check out BNI, your local Chamber of Commerce, related trade groups, and specialty business groups (like groups for women or minorities).)

SOCIAL BOOKMARKING

PRO:  Multiple visits to your website can help your business by utilizing search engine optimization.  The more views your site acquires, the more your site moves to the top of search engines like Google and Yahoo, giving you an edge over your competition.  Submitting your website to social bookmarking sites achieves the desired views to move your website into premier positions.

CON:  These sights largely promote writers and bloggers.  Therefore, you need to spend time in both writing and updating your blogs, as well as in helping other social bookmarkers promote their material in order to stay fresh and on top of your market.

MAKING IT WORK:  Create an informative blog on your website related to what your business does or the services you provide.  This will set you apart as an expert in your field, and give something to your bookmarking network that they can legitimately promote.  The more time you spend adding “friends,” visiting and approving sites, and making comments, the more your networking group will do the same for you. 

(Check out Stumbleupon, Digg, Propeller, Facebook and MySpace for social bookmarking sites.  Also create a profile on LinkedIn since this website is quickly becoming one of the main business networking resources on the net.)

TESTIMONIALS AND COMMENTS

PRO:  Testimonials and comments set you apart as a reliable professional in your field and gain the trust of readers.  It gives future customers the chance to learn about you while also having other people verify your knowledge.

CON:  This is not a 100% guarantee of trust since some people may assume that you made up any testimonials on your site.  Negative comments might actually hurt your credibility as well.

MAKING IT WORK:  Ask your acquaintances and colleagues to provide a testimonial about you, your business and your products.  Select the best ones for your website and promotional materials place them in a prominent position.  By doing so, you portray your professionalism upfront and give visitors a sense of confidence in your skills.  Use negative comments as constructive feedback to improve your blogs, and delete them when necessary or inappropriate. 

Business Networking: Pros and Cons Part II

One of my goals this year is to attend 4 real-world face-to-face networking events each month. Why bother with offline networking at all? After all, several virtual assistants I spoke with told me they do all their marketing and networking strictly online.
Face-to-face Networking Builds Trust
My personal experience with online-only networking is a mixed bag. I met all my past and present clients online. The problem is that some of my business relationships soured in large part because of their virtual nature. For example, dismissing an overdue invoice with promises of payment at a later unspecified date is much easier to do via e-mail than through face-to-face contact.
From the client’s point of view, they might want to deal with someone local because hopefully it would ensure higher level of customer service and greater ease of communication. Plus, it turns out that many solo entrepreneurs and small business owners are a fairly conservative and cautious bunch. They really need to get to know you and chat with you a few times before they even look at your Services page. Or is it a Southern thing?
Face-to-Face Networking Lets You Assess Your Future Client
Either way, this need for face-to-face contact works for me since it gives me time to evaluate prospective client and decide whether our working together would be a good idea after all.
Face-to-face Networking is Fun
I’m a stay-at-home mom who spends most of her days in the company of a preschooler.  As intelligent, entertaining, thought-provoking, and fun as my son is, I still crave, occassionally, to be with other grownups talking about things other than Thomas the Train, drums, and alphabet. Networking provides just such an outlet, not to mention a great opportunity to wear something fancier than jeans and running shoes.
Face-to-Face Networking = Learning
There are things you will hear in a small group of regulars who know each other quite well that you will not hear in public spaces online. There is also a great opportunity to meet and listen to people from a different “niche universe”.  Even though many of the people you meet are not your target clients or potential partners, they might offer a unique insight, share a valuable resource, or get you thinking about a new solution to your problems.
Now, face-to-face networking is not without its drawbacks.
Face-to-face Networking is Time Consuming – an hour-long even will take half a day if you factor in the driving time, pre-event mulling about, presentations that run on for a bit too long, and post-event networking.
Face-to-face Networking is Expensive – well, compared to online networking it is. Since most of the networking events are scheduled during business hours, you miss out on getting some work done. Many events have attendance and/or membership fees. Many are hosted over breakfast or lunch at cafes and restaurants – another expense. Finally, if your situation is similar to mine, you’ll have to arrange for childcare while you’re out networking.
Signal-to-Noise Ratio – I’d love to attend a networking group strictly for coaches or, say, for professional organizers – my target market instead of one with realtors, mortgage brokers, financial advisors, franchisees, MLM, and home parties-type businesses – not my target market. This can be easily controlled online, but offline many groups intentionally limit the number of participants from the same niche.
Still, I think old-style networking is important in a B2B business that is relationship-based, such as virtual assistance or social media support. And so I’m going to 4 networking groups this month. I found all of them through Meetup:
Women Business Owners Network – WBON – I’ve been a part of this group for about 8 months. I met one-on-one with a couple of people from this group and once bartered my services with another group member. I also did a presentation on Social Networking for Small Businesses and will be doing another one in March. But that’s as far as I’ve gotten for now.
Raleigh Entrepreneurs Organization - this is a new group I joined just a few days ago. It seems to be a diverse and active group with lots of interesting discussions. Also, very important to me – they meet in the evenings.
Raleigh Internet Marketing Mastermind – I joined this group last spring, but was able to go to only a couple of meetups since then. It’s a very in-demand group and meetups fill up very quickly, within a few hours of being posted. I’ve talked at length with some of the group members who might need my services and I’m hoping to work with some of them. But even if not, it’s a fantastic group to attend to learn all things Internet Marketing-related.
Raleigh Working Business Owners After Hours Meetup – I run my business part-time and in the evenings and it seems I’m an exception among the members of my other groups. So I was especially excited when I found out about this group late in December. I’m going to the first meeting later this week. So far, I have to say that this group has the most active message board and forum of all the groups I’m in. Very impressive!
So that’s my 4 for this month. Things might change next month if I see that one of these groups is not what I need. I have to tell you, for a part-time entrepreneur on a shoe-string budget, maintaining this pace is tough. But I hope that after 3-4 months I will be able to narrow it down to 2 networking meetings per month, possibly alternating between 3-4 groups.
What’s your experience with offline networking? How many events do you attend? How do you find out about networking groups? Please share your success stories!