Business Networking is Good for Franchises | Franchwire

This is a guest post from The Franchise King?, Joel Libava.? He provides tips and advice to individuals interested in franchise ownership with his top-notch guaranteed franchise ownership advisory services and to the masses via his award-winning franchise blog. He?s on Twitter constantly @FranchiseKing.

Have you been out and about, networking? Do lots of people in your community know who you are and what business you?re the proud owner of?

Do you know why it?s so important for you, the independent or franchise business owner, to do it?

I do, and I?m going to share 3 powerful benefits of networking.

1.? Visibility

People are busy. They?re what my Mom calls, ?Running and chasing? all the time. If they?re not working, they?re running errands, helping their family members with miscellaneous things, or doing other life-stuff.

At the same time, they?re getting bombarded with thousands of marketing messages.

And, unless you?re marketing budget is unlimited, those marketing messages aren?t always coming from you.

That?s why you need to be visible. And, networking allows you to do just that.

Visibility can come from things like;

• Being a member of a committee at your local chamber of commerce
• Being a sponsor for one of your community?s school sports teams
• Becoming heavily involved in a charity

The bottom line is this; become a visible member of your community. If you do that, it will be a bit harder for marketing messages from other concerns to get through to your current and future customers. Plus, you?ll feel good about yourself, because you?ll be a contributing member of your community

2.? Drumming

If you?re the owner of the local Domino?s franchise, networking is a must.

And, because of the product you sell, you have a serious advantage over most of the other local businesses in your community; you can drum up new business by handing out free pizza.

Other types of businesses don?t have it so easy.

For example, if you?re the owner of the local Hardware store, what can you give away for free to drum up business?

If you?re a gas-station owner, what can you carry around from business to business-or even house to house that can help bring in new customers?

If you own a picture framing store, what can you bring to a networking event to give away?

In this example, being the owner of a pizza franchise clearly rules.

(If you own a non-pizza business, please share some of things that you?ve successfully done to drum up business as you network. Franchwire readers would love to hear about your success!)

3.? Advice

If you?re attending networking events, including formal ones like BNI, there will be numerous opportunities for you to forge deep connections with other like-minded business owners. These connections-if nurtured properly, can become resources for you and your business.

For example, what if you?re thinking of adding another location?

Now, obviously you?ll reach out to the commercial real estate agent who helped you secure your current business location. But, why would you want to only use one resource to help you find a suitable second location? There?s a certain amount of risk involved; you want an opportunity to look at all the options available?not just the ones that are being offered by the agent that helped you last time.

If you?ve been networking for a while, you have a built-in advice network that?s only a phone call or an email away. This is the time to use it!

Call the owners of a couple of non-competing businesses and ask them if they know of any commercial space that?s available-or about to become available. There?s a good chance that they?ve, ?heard things.? You may even get some unsolicited advice along the way that ends up saving you some money. Who knows what you?ll hear?

I know one thing for sure:

Small business owners who commit to spending some of their time networking and getting active in their communities have a huge leg up on those that don?t.

Source: http://www.franchwire.com/business-networking/

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