Climate Business Network

As a small business owner you can often feel alone, even when surrounded by many people.

How is this possible? The answer is that many small business owners keep their business challenges to themselves. They don’t want employees, or customers, or suppliers, or family and friends for that matter, to know that they have business issues that might be difficult to manage.

If this describes your business environment, consider building a business network to help you manage your challenges and grow your business.

What is a small business network? In this instance it is a network of either similar or dissimilar small businesses that work together to help each other solve their business issues and also to help each other manage and grow their businesses.

Let’s examine an example of a small business network for similar businesses.

A group of between eight and twelve business owners in the same industry but in non-competing locations set up a peer business network. They get together (either face-to-face or online) at a regularly scheduled day and time (maybe monthly or quarterly) to discuss their small business strategy and issues and they each ask for, and get, feedback from the rest of the group — all experienced business owners of similar type businesses.

Some of the discussion might center on human resource issues such as training, hiring, firing, turn-over rates, and comparative wages or salaries. Other discussions might be on common customer centric issues such as turn-around times, over promising and under delivering, quality, service, handling difficult customers. Some sessions might focus on business planning, marketing planning, sales planning or results from plans.

To form this type of group, business owners could meet through national or international industry trade associations. To make this type of network work, the participants must sign confidentiality agreements and non-compete agreements — even though today the businesses are non-competing, there is no guarantee that tomorrow they won’t be competing. It is important that legal advice is obtained at the start of setting up this type of network — your group will need to know what is allowed or not allowed by government competition acts.

The advantage of this type of network is that all participants already know and understand the industry and can bring that knowledge and expertise to the discussions. Continue Reading

Business networking is more than just a tactic that some people use to draw in more clientele. For most small business owners, proper networking skills are necessary for their continued existence and success.

Networking takes many forms. Whether a business owner is cold-calling clients on the phone, or meeting other business owners in the area for breakfast or lunch, the networking never stops. Networking leads to referral business, and referral business leads to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Many owners choose to become part of organizations such as their local Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber is an excellent way for business owners to participate in business advocacy and lobbying efforts, and provides a way for business owners to band together for their own protection. Chambers of Commerce around the world hold both formal meetings and informal “meet-and-greets” during which business owners can discuss the current business climate in their given area, and formulate ways to overcome obstacles such as local governmental regulations and workforce problems.

Regardless of the type of networking activities that an owner conducts, they are still responsible for presenting themselves in a way that is both professional and forceful. Without a forceful but polite demeanor, business owners may fall prey to the most difficult of obstacles, word of mouth and the rumor mill. If a business owner doesn’t conduct themselves with the utmost dignity, they may be labeled as unstable, and other business owners may elect to exclude them from future meetings and planning sessions. This leads to a rapid breakdown in communication, and a corresponding drop in sales. Continue Reading