Growing Small Businesses

Lesson 4: Networking as a marketing tool

Networking is one of the most powerful strategies to increase the profile of your business and reach your target markets. How do you become part of a network and how do you use the network to support your business goals? How do you create your own network, tailored to the needs of your particular business?

Introduction

You can have all kinds of detailed strategies to make your business grow. You can use referrals from existing customers and suppliers; you can spend some time each day identifying new business prospects; you can whip up new business quickly from existing customers or you can slowly grow your business into new markets. The one thing that will make all this much easier is networking - if you have an active and growing network of people who benefit from their association with you, you can count on getting help from them when you want it.

Everyone has a ready made network - it's just most people are not aware of theirs and don't even know it's there. Your ready-made network includes your family, friends, dentist, doctor, lawyer, neighbours, club members, church group, sports buddies, kids' friends' parents and business acquaintances. People network and are always exchanging information on an informal level. You ask your neighbour what he puts on his grass; you ask your dentist where he got his new car; you ask a friend what he did about something or other; you tell your church group that they can get better and cheaper insurance from someone you've just switched to. That's all networking and now you have to recognize it and put it to use for your business so that growing and running your business becomes easier and that it in turn helps to strengthen your network.

Once you become aware of the network you already have and how helpful it can be, you will probably want to find new networks which can help you even more. Your existing network is just a random one that grew up without purpose or direction - just think how effective one that has purpose and direction might be. You'll be interested in identifying new networks aimed at businesses and using and expanding those.

When you think of your own existing network, you can see how it may not be appropriate to use it for your own purposes in an abusive way. Your friends are going to get sick of your very quickly if all you are doing is trying to sell them stuff. Your doctor won't want to hear about your latest business venture if that's all you ever talk about and even your family will get sick of you and your business if you overdo it. The key to networking is just to make sure that everyone knows what you do and not to push anything. Don't forget, you're interested only in people who actually need what you have to offer. You're not selling - you're not trying to convince anyone to buy. The information you're offering is a service to the people who have that particular need - you're telling them where they can get what they want.

Once you get the hang of networking in your existing network and have tried out a few business networks, you may find that it really helps your business and that you're good at it. If that's the case, you may want to become more active in this area of business promotion and keep track of your own business network in an organized way. It can only help your small business to become active in a network of your own.

Only you can decide what level of networking is appropriate for your business and what level you're comfortable with. A certain network awareness and use is indispensable for a small business but you can also get to the point where a good part of your business comes from your business network where your fellow networkers give each other business, often at preferred prices and a with very high service level. It just depends where you personally and your business fit. To decide that, you have to know what networking is all about.

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