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Unique Businesses in LeTip

Nov 5, 2018 | Articles, Kim Marie's Blog

Many LeTip members run small businesses in unique businesses categories. We have 134 members who are the only business in their category nationwide and another 360 in categories where there are 4 or fewer members in that category. Having a unique category presents a special opportunity and many unique challenges. How can these members expand their reach to more LeTip members to make their services or products available?

I want to bring an awareness to some of these businesses and talk about how all our members can start finding and utilizing their services. This is especially important as we approach Small Business Saturday on November 24th.

When we introduced LeTipWired in 2013, one of the benefits was an increase in inter-chapter Tips. While most chapters will have a Residential Real Estate member or a Financial Advisor, we know it is not often that chapters will have a Janitorial Supplies member or a Pet Boarding business.

Now, with the addition of the LeTip Wired Mobile App, many of these businesses are at the fingertips of all our members. Businesses that most of us didn’t even know existed within LeTip are waiting to be found and awaiting leads.

Every time you need a service or are asked about a referral, don’t limit your thoughts to only your chapter. We encourage all our members to first think about your chapter members, then think about members in chapters around you that could provide a service or product to the person seeking a referral.

For the members who own these unique businesses, the first step to expanding your business influence within LeTip is to visit other chapters in your area. John Gazzani, of LeTip of Ridgewood/Glen Rock NY brought together the 10 chapter presidents around him in 2010 to formulate a process for this exact issue.

These chapter presidents agreed to 5 things. First, they would support visitation among chapter members with hard to tip or unique categories for members in good standing. The member must be in good standing with the chapter and LeTip International. The member must pay for their own meal when visiting. The member cannot tip members in the visiting chapter if that category is in their own chapter. Finally, and as important to these chapter presidents, was implementing a policy where members who are in this visitation program cannot request Chapter transfers. If your area doesn’t have a policy as strong as this one, start by sending an email or note to the Chapter President and let them know you would like to visit the chapter.

This is a unique benefit of being a LeTip member versus just meeting with your local coffee networking group. We encourage visitations once or twice per year to local chapters who don’t have competing categories. As you know from being a LeTip member, Your Small Business Sales Force will recommend you because they know, like and trust you. By visiting chapters in your area, you could double or triple your Tips while helping members solve a problem.

How else can you reach the other members in LeTip? We encourage members to reach out to our marketing team and discuss with them the opportunity to either provide us with unique content that could be shared on social media or in our newsletter. We are looking for interesting Blogs or business articles that help our members out and that could help promote you and your business.
We highly recommend that each member fills out the details of your LeTip Wired profile/Bio and bring their business information up to date. This information is available on LeTipWired, the LeTipWired App and on LeTip.com, where people outside of the LeTip Membership can also find you.

Remember these businesses and all of our LeTip Members as you prepare for Small Business Saturday this year.

Some of our featured unique LeTip members & businesses:

Kim Marie Branch-PettidKim Marie is one of the leading women business owners in charge of an organization which includes more than 5200 members worldwide, now entering their 40th Anniversary Celebration. Her motivational speeches have been heard throughout the world. With 28 years in the banking industry in all forms, including mergers and acquisitions, she has been and continues to be involved in fund raising for non-profit organizations, as well as a member of California Women for Agriculture, Sequoia Guild, member of Vistage Trusted Advisor Group and WPO-Women Presidents Organization, Phoenix, AZ. Also, she is a past board member of ASBA (Arizona Small Business Association). Her specialties include trainer, motivator, connector with years of experience in bringing businesses together for a ‘great fit’.