NFIB

Networking Can Give Your Business a Boost
04/ 02/ 2002


Fans of your products or services are your best marketers, whether they know it or not -- they tell their friends and they tell their friends and they tell their friends... You know how it goes. And when you're behind the wheel of a small business, anything that can help make your job a little easier is welcomed with open arms. In today's workshop, our friend Edith Helmich offers some insight into the immeasurable value of that age-old business concept: networking.

"Networking" sounds like one of those business buzz-words. However, networking is a down-to-earth and effective way of getting a new business off the ground. In fact, small businesses often get started spontaneously through unintended networking: someone makes a product and friends ask where they can get one for themselves. Or someone finds themselves being frequently requested to show people how to do something, or help people do something. At some point, there is a realization that the product or service is marketable and a new business is born!

Networking can be defined as a chain of information along a line of interested people, or "getting the word out." A network informs prospective clients of your new business through word-of-mouth. Networking is a simple, effective, minimal-cost way of advertising.

The effectiveness of networking is based on the information being passed to those who are most likely to want to use or buy the product or service that the business represents. For example, when mothers pass along the name of a good baby-sitter to other mothers, the sitter will soon have all the child care jobs she can handle. This is the basic principle of networking -- a gathering of new clients through recommendations from people who are familiar with your product or service.

The networking concept is the equivalent of the old saying, "Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your doorway!" Then, just to make sure that the path is easy to find, brainstorm some ways to get the network humming with the news. For example:

Call all your relatives, friends and acquaintances, and tell them the reason you are calling is to announce the start of your new business.

Ask good friends to sponsor a "coffee," "open house," or "sales party" so that you can demonstrate, talk about, or pass out samples of your product.

Call all related businesses in the area and tell them you would appreciate their referrals (offer reciprocation, if possible).

Ask successful companies if you can set up an exhibit of your product, or use space on their bulletin boards, emphasizing how their services or products are interrelated with yours.

Offer to speak to local groups about your new business. Offer to give classroom demonstrations in the local schools about your new business.
Pass out free samples in strategic locations -- or offer a "Special" to attract first-time clients.

Offer a discount or bonus to past and current customers for referrals.

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