I’ve told this story many times but when I started my business I didn’t know a soul.
The first several months I spent knocking on doors, meeting other business owners, putting flyers and cards on people’s windshields, etc. just to get people to RevFit.
Within my first year, I got involved in a business to business (B2B) networking group that was monumental to my growth.
For me, it helped to be in weekly attendance with a group of like-minded business professionals who were all looking to take their business the next step up.
There were no competing interests in the group which meant that there was one realtor, one accountant, one banker, one estate planning attorney and so on who were all on hand to help one another.
Between the members who joined my studio directly and the people they referred to me, it was a game-changing decision that paid for itself many times over.
And after a few years of being involved in that type of group, I reached a ceiling where business was growing at a comfortable pace and taking the time away from work to be a part of those meetings didn’t seem to be the best use of my time.
I stepped away and continued to nurture and grow the business through my existing clientele and a very aggressive approach to marketing on social media.
Throughout the years, as I’ve continued to mentor other coaches or other health/wellness professionals coming into the field, B2B networking is the one recommendation I make to all of them.
Fact is, I got complacent and perhaps a bit lazy and felt like I didn’t need to be involved in those groups anymore because my business would continue to grow on its own merit.
The problem is, life/business aren’t quite the same in a “post-COVID” world.
Marketing efforts that used to be more reliable aren’t what they were before and part of that may have to do with how people digest and utilize social media to help them make decisions on what service providers to use.
So, I decided recently to get back into the world of B2B networking again because there is no adage that rings more true than: Nothing changes if you don’t change.
For those in the know about the organization, I found a local chapter of BNI with a group of hungry professionals all looking to help one another scale up.
And to be honest, I missed it.
BNI wasn’t the organization I was affiliated with before but I missed connecting with others who weren’t directly in my field. I missed being able to absorb the challenges that others were facing and helping them work through those challenges.
I missed the ability to be able to step outside of my four walls and let my gears spin in a different way.
If you’re already involved in a B2B group, you know it’s a relationship worth putting work into. It may not give you overnight success but you can form alliances that can last you for many years to come.
I’ve always been fortunate to have a wide network of people to give business to and this allows me to spread the net even further.
If you normally read my work because of health, fitness and nutrition take a few of these lessons which apply just as much to my networking efforts as they do to your self-improvement:
-Nothing changes if you don’t change.
-Results come from the things you put dedicated time and effort into.
-Patience pays in the long game.
-It helps to have a dedicated support system to help you level up towards your goals.
