Most businesses are struggling right now. Income is down and traditional ways to grow a business are not as effective as they use to be. Many business owners must find a way to generate additional income in order to survive. If traditional methods are not as effective, what are they supposed to do?
Every business is primarily concerned with three things; increasing revenue, reducing expenses and improving efficiencies. If a business can improve in all three of these areas it will be successful.
Effective networking is one of the most powerful tools any business can employ because it has an immediate and very positive impact on all three areas. Here’s how:
- Increase revenues: An effective network generates business and creates opportunities which have a direct impact on increasing revenue. If done correctly, this income stream can start immediately. Generally speaking a client referred to you from someone they trust is going to buy your product or service. They do not call three of your competitors to find the lowest price like they would if they found you in the Yellow Pages.
- Reduce expenses: A network is a sales force. It generates income for the business without all the costs typically associated with those sales. No wages, salaries, benefits or HR cost to hire and manage the sales team. Finally, the business does not have to pay for marketing to generate those sales which also improves the bottom line.
- Improve efficiencies: There are a number of ways a good network can help improve operational efficiencies. A good network is a great resource of information and advice to solve problems early before they become expensive and time-consuming. Finally, a good network can be a trusted source of exceptional service providers who can help a business in areas like search engine optimization, social media marketing, effective communication systems, legal advice etc.
We are seeing a migration towards a more social way of doing business and new networking options emerge every day. Keep this in mind: not all businesses are the same, not all networking groups are the same and there is no perfect networking solution for everyone. Like anything thing else, you have do it right or it will not work. All too often business owners join the first networking group they come into contact with. They attend meetings and actively participate but do not see the results. At the end of the year they give up and quit. Left with a bad taste in their mouth for networking, they walk away from one of the most powerful ways to grow their business. There are very good reasons why most networking experiences do not work. We will examine those reasons later…..
Regardless of your business, make networking part of your business plan!
