Community Day 7: How to reduce the cost of networking
I was the original person to ask this question at Coffee Tea You and Me, and I can tell you that I got an incredible answer from the Coach. For those who attend the actual event, you know that Coach Powell asks for Panera Bread gift cards if you get something out of the event. Well, needless to say, I owed him a coffee card!
The question stemmed from a situation that I saw a while back. There was a business person that I knew from all the networking events that I was attending. He was middleaged and was trying to jump from one end of the IT field to the other by starting his own business. We had been bumping into each other at networking events for upwards of 6 months when at a networking training event someone asked him to give a story about how he had gotten some business through networking. His response was “I haven’t.” And I about fell out of my chair!!
To reveal a little personal information, my networking costs average about $300-$400 a month, and I know that that is low. If I was to really push the limits I’m sure I could double that (I just don’t think I could handle all the business!) But I tend to make more than I spend when I’m out networking. In fact, a handful of jobs would put me into the black. So when I heard from this gentleman that he wasn’t making ANY money off of these events but I knew that his expenses were around the same as mine, my jaw dropped.
So, instead of asking the Coach how to make networking more effective (thats for another day), I ended up going the other direction and asked how to make networking cost less. We’ll post up the Coach’s fantastic answer next Monday, but let me give you one strategy that I know of and then I want to see your input ^_^.
I learned this strategy from Jon Graft a great networker and estate planning attorney. (Also a really funny guy who seems to keep turning up in the paper’s style invitational.) He told me about a friend of his who was a BNI member. Not all BNI chapters do this, but this guy’s BNI chapter charged for the meeting. There was a weekly charge of about $15 per member for food and the meeting space. As you might expect that can add up! (think $780 a year!) But this guy figured out an ingenious way to solve his problem with paying this cost every week. Every week he’d contact another member of his personal network and invite them to BNI, all they had to do was pay for his breakfast and he’d introduce them to 30+ business professionals who could explode his guests profits.
Sounds like a fair deal to me! And thats a NICE way to clear out several hundred dollars worth of expenses and enjoy a LOT of free breakfasts! Hehe 
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Now it is your turn, what are some ways that you can lower the cost of networking? It is an expensive sport (kinda like golf… in fact I’ve seen that networking often involves golf!) There are ways to keep your wallet from melting away to networking heaven.
Post in the comments below .
I became part of the leadership team for my BNI group, which allows me to suspend my membership fee for my term of one year and also provides me with a leadership meeting once per month to help in the decision making process for my group. I try to attend other BNI meetings as a visitor to meet new faces and to see how other BNI chapters are growing their chapters. With networking growing in popularity, there are several other free networking events, some of which I run into the same people. I have eliminated going to those on a regular basis, since they have no attendance requirement, but do keep feeling the pulse of these groups to see how many new faces are attending, and will drop in from time to time. I also go to some of our local Chamber of Commerce “after hours” events. You can go to these for free as a visitor, and they generally have a great turnout. We also have a group called One More Referral that meets bi-weekly. They are in the process of going nationwide, so keep an eye out for this group in your area. There is no attendance requirement, and they do not limit membership to one profession per member. We currently have four chapters within a 35 mile radius of my location that meet on different days of the week, and these meetings cost $2 per event and can have upwards of 50 people at each meeting. They also have an informative Brown Bag Luncheon once per month, where the attendance is staggering. Lastly, social networking online is free. I am new to this venue, but it is already beginning to show results.
I support Kathy’s statement about becoming part of the BNI leadership team. Not only are your dues suspended for the term, you become an integral part of the group’s direction.
My PWC GREATER Manassas Chamber of Commerce, although fee based, hosts many networking events ranging from No cost to low cost. Do your homework though so you get the most out of these events.
Also, by choosing specific network groups that provide the greatest ability to grow your business, you will reduce your costs.
I participate in a terrific leadshare group within the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce. The cost of $15 twice a month for lunch is well worth the investment. Our group of 30 people aggressively looks to help each other. We exchanged over 400 leads in 2008, with two-thirds of them leading to business. If each person has a network of 200 people, that is 6000 possible sources of business for each of us…not bad for $30/month!
Like always it’s important to think before you do! Too many of us small business leaders jump into costly ideas and strategies before we actually work out and commit to some real solid guiding principles and objectives. We need to plan to be successful before we become successful. This is the only way to maintain real business stability and keep a low cost basis to our word-of-mouth opportunities. I write about planning a lot because I’m kind of wacky. You can read more on this site.
Welcome to the revolution!
Coach Powell
-”Keeping success in focus”