Time Management Tips from Captain Time

What exactly is business networking?

Business networking is building mutually beneficial relationships with other business professionals. You meet people and get to know them over time. These relationships can then be tapped to advance your career, make sales, promote your business, and help each other.

Business Networking is Ancient

Business networking has existed as long as there has been trade, especially when trade became more complex and expanded beyond simple villages where everyone knew each other to cities with more people and connections to trade routes. Throughout history, people naturally turned to people they know and trust to support their business ventures or hire them as employees.

Business Networking Benefits in the Digital World

So you might be thinking. “That’s all very well, but we don’t need business networking anymore because now we have the Internet!” While it is true that the Internet has been a brilliant way for many small businesses to get the word out and grow their business, there is also a lot of noise on the Internet and it is easy for your voice to get lost. It is often faster and easier to build stronger business relationships when you meet in person. And, the Internet allows you to expand your business networking globally.

Why is Business Networking So Powerful?

You’ve probably heard the common adage, “Success is about WHO you know, not WHAT you know.” It is estimated that 67% of job openings are filled through referrals, internal hires, and other methods, NOT from public job postings. In the case of these job referrals, the job went to someone the HR department, CEO, or someone else in the company knew. In the political arena, we often see political supporters rewarded with plum positions in government or politicians voting on issues in a way that favors their supporters.

The same is true for purchasing products and services – you go with the people you know and trust.

Word of mouth has always been one of the most powerful forms of marketing. EACH person you connect to has 100s or 1,000s of people in their network of people they know, so business networking greatly increases your word of mouth because you have an entire network of people who love what you do and recommend you to their network. Just 10 people who love what you do with 1,000 people each in their network, makes it easy for you to reach 10,000 people.

Generating Sales: Doing Business With Each Other

In my own experience running a business networking group, whenever our members need a plumber, realtor, or business coach, they will go with the people they know and trust, their business family, the other members of the group that they have come to know over months and years of networking.

Referrals

Your sales don’t just come from the people you know, they also come from referrals from the people you know and who know and trust you. In my local community, I regularly see requests in the local chat groups for recommendations for plumbers, lawyers, realtors, etc. The original posters are reaching out for people’s experience and feedback with people and services. Whenever I see a service recommendation request, I and others in my local business networking groups chime in and recommend the relevant person with those skills from our business networking group.

Referral Partners

In addition to business and referrals from your business networking group, you can also find and cultivate referral partners. Referral partners are people who work with similar target audiences to you, but who don’t compete. For example a moving company and a realtor can be great referral partners. Both work with home buyers, but don’t compete. A single referral from a realtor to a moving company might be worth $5-$10,000 dollars. 4 referrals from that realtor per year might be worth up to $20,000 per year. Just 5 referral partners like this, and you now generate an extra $100K per year in income.

Cross Promotion: Social Media 10x

Let’s say you have 1,000 people who follow you on social media. You post a note about your upcoming event or workshop. Likely, only your 1,000 followers will see it. But, if you are a well-respected part of your business networking group and 10 people from your group love what you do, they will share your post on their own social media profile. If each of them has 1,000 followers, now you are reaching an extra 10,000 people! More than 10xing your reach.

Business Networking Avoids Cold Calling

With business networking, you never have to do cold calling if you work it right. Cold calling is when you call a person or company that doesn’t know you and you pitch your products and services. I have done this for a living and it is wearing and success rates for cold calling are very low. Here are the business networking benefits that make cold calling an archaic tool of the past.

1. Meeting Invitations: Instead of cold calling someone to pitch my time management coaching or workshop training, I invite them to my business networking group, offering them a free lunch or breakfast. A free lunch or breakfast plus a marketing and social opportunity is much easier to sell than a cold pitch for my services. Once they are at the meeting, I make sure to make my guests welcome and introduce them to some people whom I think might benefit each other. My guest is appreciative of the free lunch or breakfast and the opportunity to meet other people. They now know me and my outreach is no longer “cold.” And, if they join my local business networking group, they become part of my business family, creating lifelong mutually beneficial relationships.


2. Introductions: When your fellow networking groups know what connections you want, they can introduce you to people in their network who fit. So instead of cold calling, you are introduced to them by someone in their network they know and trust. For those of you familiar with the “6 Degrees of Separation” concept (sometimes referred to as “The Kevin Bacon” game, you will find as your network grows, you will be able to reach more and more of the key people you need to reach.

Testing Products & Services

In their early stages many small business owners are on their own, without a team. Belonging to a business networking group gives you a supportive “brain trust” that you can test or run ideas by. When I had the idea for “Captain Time” I ran the idea by my business family and they were very supportive.

Finding the People and Skills You Need to Grow

While most of us start business networking to find prospects, business networking is also the best way to find the people and services you need to help you grow.

I found these critical people and services through my business networking group:

• Business Coach


• Videographer


• Photographer


• Virtual Assistant

Affordability

Business networking is one of the most affordable methods of marketing. Most memberships might run $100 to $150 per month plus lunch costs – perhaps $200 to $250 per month in total.

Compare this to any Google Adwords campaign where the average estimated cost per click is $2.69 and some categories like legal might be $6.75 per click. For ONE click you don’t even have people’s contact info for follow-up. You can easily spend $1,000s of dollars per month on Google Adwords, with little or no return. One of my clients spent $7,000 US on a Google Adwords campaign (before I got involved) and only generated $700 in sales…a fast road to bankruptcy.

In contrast, with business networking, you might pay $200 per month, get some lunches and breakfasts, and meet REAL people/prospects and potential referral partners.

Friendships

And lastly, business networking is a great way to make lasting friendships with other like-minded people. As an entrepreneur myself, I love that I can meet other creative entrepreneurs and share time with them. I have several personal friends through business networking that my wife and I see socially. This was a great benefit when we moved into a new community where we didn’t know the locals.

Business Networking Benefits Conclusion

For me, business networking benefits include:

• finding prospects and creating sales


• easier sales method than cold calling


• referrals


• powerful referral partners


• connecting with the people I need to build my business


• cross-promotion


• affordability


• lasting friendships

Business Networking Help

Business networking is a skill, and like any other, you do have to learn the skill and apply it.

If your business networking efforts aren’t generating at least $1,000 per month in revenue, reach out for a free business networking discovery call to see how I can help. You can also check out my business networking coaching programs here.

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