No Dollar, No Client?
You are now a business owner, congratulations! You have everything you need right down to the business plan but one thing is missing. Customers. As you sit in the darkness of your living room at night, you wonder how you can afford to advertise and where.
The next morning you drag out the Yellow Pages looking for a company that specializes in marketing or advertising, make the call and to your dismay the person that you speak to informs you of the prices for their services. They tell you that it will cost from several hundred dollars to as much as 15% of your total business. You have a little bit of money left from the loan that you obtained to get the business up and running, so you agree and set an appointment to meet later in the week.
What is wrong with this scenario? Nothing if you have a lot of money to spend. The problem is that most small business owners have limited budgets to work with and expensive advertising campaigns are simply out of the question. So what is the alternative?
Business-to-Business networking affords the small business owner an opportunity to reach hundreds if not thousands of prospects for very little cost. In fact, the small business owner who finds it easy to talk to others can benefit in a big way from simply getting together with other business people and talking about their business.
Does this sound to good to be true? It is true. This phenomenon called Business Networking has spawned hundreds of networking organizations around the world. Each day, more and more business owners are finding clients and prospects at networking meetings or Chamber of Commerce meetings and spending very little needed cash to do so.
Business networking is easier than cold calling, cheaper than advertising and is the fastest method available to build your business. If you are considering spending money on advertising, consider networking instead, or in conjunction with your advertising campaign. This will give you an opportunity to build the crucial relationships with prospects, converting them into customers that will refer their friends and business associates to you.