50 years ago, 98% of the people you knew lived within a 20-mile radius of where you live. Today, you have family, friends, vendors, customers, and business associates living and working across the country. One of the best ways to advertise your business is for you to be a Trusted Resource for those people when they need to find a company to do work for them. Locally this is easy, as you have your business networking group you meet with regularly and they are your go to recommendations. How does this scale to networking nationally?
How can you take advantage of the same value add across the country?
It is not what you know but who you know when it comes to networking and building relationships. It is your best advantage to join a networking group that has business chapters across the country. You will quickly see that the same care you take in choosing members for your group is used in those groups also. Reach out to the members in an area that you want to cultivate relationships and attend one of their meetings (this is one of the benefits we got out of Covid is that everyone knows how to run virtual and hybrid meetings). Is the meeting filled with energy? Remember, energy equals business.
The easiest way is to find someone that is in your business category and as you talk to them about their business, you will gain even more confidence that they are looking out for people the same way you are. They can become your go to hub in that area plus you establish a relationship that can offer other business-related benefits.
LinkedIn used to be the best tool for this form of networking.
20 years ago, LinkedIn came out with a way to connect to business associates across the county, but as with most social media platforms, it has been diverted to way too many advertisements, spam and social clout. Networking groups like LeTip have built the tools you really need to make this national networking work for the small business needs. Reach out to a local group and learn how easy it is to have a national network you can rely on.
