Networking - What Works For You?

A quick post as, having had a rare full day off yesterday including a late night (by my standards) following an excellent Saltburn gig by Jon Richardson supported by the local and extremely funny Pete Firman, I've got a lot of work to do today.

So a brief post about networking. Anyone who has read the blog before will probably know I'm a member of BNI plus attend some other networking events. I am only considering general business networking here, industry specific events may be the subject of a later post.

This week I went along to the Mussel Club (http://www.themusselclub.com/) for it's first evening event in Teesside after an invite from a couple of owners of quality local businesses, Jo from Ambrose Accounting (http://www.ambroseaccounting.co.uk/) and Gordon from Active Tax Solutions (http://www.activetaxsolutions.net/). Firstly a big thanks to both Jo and Gordon for the invite to a very enjoyable evening that was very informal and useful in making some new contacts. I must also say what a great venue Brasserie Hudson Quay (http://www.brasseriehudsonquay.com/) is with great staff and excellent food (and great website even though we didn't make it), I shall definitely be there again in a more personal capacity.

So a really good event where I got to meet a bunch of local and regional business people and hopefully will get to meet them again as I intend to get along to the next event. Well it makes it easy to explain to my wife that chatting over nice food with some great local business owners is work! A great way to develop what hopefully will become long term relationships with other businesses.

It was a big contrast to the breakfast events I attend. I go along to breakfast events organised by both Middlesbrough Council and Redcar & Cleveland Council but do this much less frequently than I used to (even though the Redcar one takes place directly above our office). This is largely because it's the same people every month, often quite cliquey, and I'm not entirely sure of the worth of going along.

Which is one of the difficulties in measuring the worth of networking. At events where the purpose is to get to know other business people and perhaps do some business with each other in the long term it is very difficult to measure. My gut feeling is that the Mussel Club can do that as you get to meet and chat informally over several hours at an evening event whereas the council events you get limited time to find out more about other people so I doubt many deeper relationships are formed.

And what of BNI (http://www.bni.co.uk/)? Whilst understanding many people don't like it, I really enjoy getting along at daft o'clock every Wednesday morning to meet with my chapter. The first reason I enjoy it is the people I meet there, who you do get to know really well - we have a cracking bunch of people as members of Links Chapter who I am really pleased to have met plus great people from the region (Russ, Craig, Andy, Joe) who provide us with tons of support and guidance as a new chapter. Secondly it works in a business sense and is playing a big role in getting Tad Web Solutions growing, not just some great referrals to do business but we operate differently when meeting customers and writing quotes from the free business training we've already had AND I'm back in the office to have a normal day. We also measure everything, numbers of referrals, business passed, etc.so I know exactly how successful it is for me.

So my longer term networking plans are BNI every week, Mussel Club evening events on Teesside and maybe a couple of other Mussel Club events, very occasional Redcar Council events.

I would welcome other business owner's thoughts on what works for them so please comment.

Talking Out My Rs - Referrals, Reach, Reputation and Recovery

I was doing a bit of project planning, reviewing the last year and timetabling following up leads and one thing in particular struck me - the number of sales leads we have compared to a year ago. This in turn got me thinking about why that is the case, so here are a few thoughts.

• It appears that the economy is recovering

The news says that things are on the up but I'm not sure that's had an effect for us yet. Maybe there is an increase in the intagible "business confidence" and as a result some of those potential clients are looking to spend money when they were not a year ago.

• We have been around for some time now so people know we exist

This is definitely the case. We have more clients than we did a year ago and this means more satisfied customers who recommend us to their business contacts which means more sales leads and even more clients. There is a snowball effect with this.

• We do a lot of work on Social Media

Obviously we run our company social media accounts and whilst we do tell people what we do we also engage with people and try to help them including puttingvthem in touch with other businesses who can help them. We also help run the accounts of 2 CICs, Palace FM and Jack in the Box, to help raise their profile. Our big social media effort goes into @ClevelandHour on Twitter which is simply used to promote local businesses, organisations and events. It may seem counter-intuitive a times as competitors are promoted on there but we have picked up business via the account, passed business to other local companies and helped people form partnerships.

• We are part of a referrals network

I'm a member of BNI which is a business referrals network with our group meeting every Wednesday morning in Redcar. It's not everyone's cup of tea and I had a meeting with the father of one of our member's who said "you're also a member of that cult". It's very structured and at times seems a little strange but it is all professionally run and most importantly, it works!. 

It's clearly about getting the right business people together and the organisation provides the structure to make it work plus some great training to help your business operate as a business more effectively. I've already changed a few things that are having an effect in turning sales leads into business, after all I'm a geek primarily and learning to do the business part as I go along.

What has it done in terms of generating business? Well our group has been launched for 2 months and we are passing 40+ referrals (that's 40+ real opportunities for new business) each week. We have had a small number of new web projects from other members and their contacts. I have a couple of contracts directly from visitors, one of whom has joined another new chapter. We have also purchased the services of a number of members and visitors plus become a regular customer of another local business who visited us. We now purchase our server space from them which has resulted in some good business for them plus saved us £100 per month compared to our previous supplier - so my membership is paid for ever!

We know BNI isn't for everyone and we have also turned down membership from a number of businesses that we didn't feel were of sufficient quality to take part. BUT it works, so if you are a QUALITY local business and want to grow then come along and take a look at what we do. 

On Wed 20th Nov we have a Visitors Day to open up to more local businesses to see how we can help you. Give me a call on 07739 408745 for more details.

We Remember Them

Today is Remembrance Sunday, a day when we remember those who have fallen in wars, largely working people of many nations who have died on the battlefield in wars both just and unjust. It is a great tragedy of the modern age that we are still sending people to war (for what reason?) and then not looking after the survivors when they come back. Why do we let our politicians get away with this and the removal of our freedoms and right to protest in the name of some war on terror. We are more surveilled in this country than the supposed evil empires of China, Russia, Syria, etc.

We live in a world where politicians still send young working people to their deaths or to be maimed behind a curtain of lies hiding the true reason which is to protect the interests of the political classes and their rich friends. I'm no pacifist but why are we letting this happen, it would be great to have a Remembrance Sunday to remember the fallen and know that we will never have to remember the fallen of a pointless war again.

So to end for today, I leave you with Wilfred Owen who saw the horrors of the trenches in WW1 and is much more eloquent than me:

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots  

Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime . . .
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud 
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest 
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Wilfred Owen
8 October 1917 - March, 1918

Xmas is coming ...

One of our neighbours in the Palace Hub managed to put up their Xmas tree before Halloween! Now I'm much closer to the bah humbug! end than the Merry Xmas! end of the seasonal jollyness scale but I do like to celebrate Christmas only in a more toned down manner. Since Matt has grown up we have lost a bit of the magic of having young children around which does make it a really special time - you've probably guessed that I'm not a Christian by now, so there is no religious significance for me.

So what will Tad Web Solutions be doing. Firstly we'll be shut between Xmas and New Year to spend some time with family and friends and also overindulge on food and drink - mobile messages and email will be answered and emergencies dealt with during that time. We'll have some small decorations up in the office and generally be jolly too, aren't we always?

There will of course be the Tad Web Solutions Xmas card going out to friends, partners and our valued customers. In previous years we've bought a stack of cards and used those (yes I know that's rubbish but this year we have more staff and more time as a result). In the last week we have had Rebecca from Middlesbrough College in on work experience who is looking to move into graphic design and one of Rebecca's tasks was to design our Xmas card. So this year we have a bespoke card and Rebecca will be credited on the card for her design, we love it , hope you do to. We will be getting them printed by our partners iMedia North East, a Middlesbough company, who we now use for all of our printing due to the quality of the service provided.

So look out for your card but we don't start before December, so not yet. The other thing we will be doing on 1 Dec is launching our on-line Tadvent Calendar (see what we did there), again the look was designed by Rebecca, which will have freebies in the form of food goodies, printing, clothing and, of course, web stuff plus some tips to help you make your web presence work better for your business.

Christmas you've got to love it but wait until December!!