* Use physical and virtual methods to connect
Small business “networking” means different things to technology writers (modern business tools) and the Chamber of Commerce (let’s do lunch). But you can now leverage networking technology to enhance your industry network connections.
Some business owners prefer the hermit model of business, and don’t want to talk to anyone else in their industry or community. After all, if you talk to people, they can figure out the “business secrets” you’ve developed over the years. True, but if you’re one person in a meeting of 20, you’ll hear many more “secrets” than you’ll give away, I promise. One for 20 is an outstanding return in any transaction.
This isn’t a commercial, but since I used them as an example in the first paragraph, you can check out the Chamber of Commerce national Web site as a start. Your local chapter members will know details about local suppliers and market trends you can’t get many other places.
Why bother leaving your cave? Because the best advertising is word of mouth advertising, and your fellow business people buy area products and services, just as you must. Their experiences, good and bad, can point you to great deals and help you avoid great disasters. Did you buy anything the past year you really regret? Share that information, and learn what others bought they regret as well. Sometimes the best positive is avoiding a negative.
Other local events provide chances to share information, such as job fairs, golf tournaments, taste of the city, holiday parades, and group masochism known as “fun” runs. These events need sponsors, they need volunteers, and they need people who can make the events work – successful business people who bring organization, efficiency and management expertise to the table.
Even hermit-like business cave dwellers have plenty of opportunities to communicate and network. Every business group has at least one Web site, and most of those have some type of public forum for discussions. You may have to be a member to get access to the forums, but not always. Other forum options include major vendors in your field and the trade magazines covering your market.
Online forums are one way to connect, but a more popular method is an e-mail group. Leading the e-mail group world, at least for me, is Yahoo Groups. Yahoo advertises “millions of groups” on their Web site, and I believe them. Small business groups: 13,426. Industry associations: 8,007. Home business: 20,494. Financial professionals: 14,845. The ever popular Other: 19,409.
Take any odd potential group, say, taxidermy, and sure enough, 35 Yahoo groups show up that involve some level of taxidermy production or appreciation. I’m not qualified to judge the value of those groups, but certainly one or two of the thirty-five groups will interest anyone devoted to the “art, business, and hobby called taxidermy.”
Schools often post information and host online events in areas they teach. A quick Google search found about 442,000 Web results for the term “taxidermy school.”
If you can’t find a group on Yahoo that fits your area of interest, start your own. Groups are free to start and just require some time to manage. Someone must start and administer the group, especially if the group is open only by invitation. I manage a couple of these, and I probably spend about eight minutes every three months keeping things in order.
One vendor impressing me with the volume and quality of free information is the BPlans.com site from Palo Alto Software, the developers of Business Plan Pro and related products. You don’t get as much interaction with their featured experts as you do on a regular forum, but you get scores of useful articles and tips.
Warning: every group has some glad handing, loud talking buffoon ready to pervert the meeting into a personal sales call for his business, whether it’s insurance, real estate, or auto dealership (online groups are not always exempt from this, unfortunately). Don’t let that stop you. You couldn’t run a business without learning how to sidestep the idiots you meet, so step aside and connect with the rest of the group. It’s good to leave the cave now and then.
