Since the dawn of time, humans have formed groups, communities, societies, tribes. It helped them pool and trade resources, approach each other for help, and protect themselves against difficult conditions and predators. And it’s really no different for businesses, who connect with each other for exactly the same reasons.
But sometimes we need to remind ourselves how powerful and vital these acts of coming together are. Did you know, for example, that over 50,000 businesses in the UK are members of the British Chambers of Commerce, through their local Chamber (of which we, at Bedfordshire Chamber of Commerce, are one)?
Or that there are over 8,000 separate membership organisations and associations based in the UK?
Or that 80% of professionals find networking essential to their career success, almost 100% believe that face-to-face meetings build stronger long-term relationships, and 41% want to network more often?
It’s clear: if you’re in business, connecting with others in one way or another is absolutely key. And with a new year upon us, here are five mini resolutions you can make to keep your business connected and maximise its reach in 2024.
Get out and meet people
The stats above hint at how important networking is in enabling you and your business to connect to new prospects and partners, so make this a priority for the coming year.
There are literally hundreds of networking groups in the UK, though, and scores in Bedfordshire and the surrounding areas alone, and you can’t attend all of them. So, it’s important to ask yourself which ones hit the right balance between regularity, relevance and reach. For Beds Chamber members, free access to a networking event every month comes as standard, with our members’ and partners’ networking events creating additional opportunities to get out there, meet people, and spread the business cards around.
Play the dating game
Connecting works best when there is pre-interest in you, your business and your offering, so it’s useful to check out if there are any ways in your area that you can be formally ‘matched’ with potentially interested parties in advance.
Think of it like dating – whilst you might run into the perfect partner in a crowd, you’re more likely to ‘click’ if you know a bit about each other before your first meeting.
At Beds Chamber, we run Meet the Buyer events for our members that are based on careful prior evaluation of your offering versus their needs, so the connection is quicker, stronger, and more productive.
Connect digitally and in print
There’s only so much of you to go around, so when you’re busy working on your core business rather than connecting, you need other channels to be doing the connecting for you.
Ensuring you’re correctly listed in local, regional and national online business directories is certainly important to achieve this, but there are literally thousands of them, and it can be difficult to know which of them prospects will typically consult and rely on.
This is why, at Beds Chamber, members can create listings in our own business directory, which is a trusted source of connection for over 700 local businesses, as well as submit member profiles and other editorial for inclusion in our Business Focus magazine, which goes out both digitally and in print.
Connect through buying and selling
Often, in business, nothing sparks a connection like a special offer, but advertising special offers widescale can leave you with little control over the outcome, so it’s often better to look for a more targeted engagement environment if you can find one.
At Beds Chamber, we specialise in this type of connection through our Member2Member offers. This is a forum that brings together our members in an atmosphere of trust, enabling them to benefit from preferential buying and selling arrangements, and rapidly build connections to reliable customers and suppliers.
We have had over 2,000 Member2Member connections and referrals since 2018 – and counting!
Reach beyond your borders
Lastly, there’s no law that says connection is just about belonging to a group, or networking with an audience, or sharing views with like-minded businesspeople – it’s all those things, of course, but it’s also about spurring growth.
And what better way to maximise growth than to look beyond your own borders to territories new? At Beds Chamber, over 32% of our members export, and we facilitate these connections through 50%-plus discounts on export documentation, and specialist export learning resources and webinars.
Hands across the sea takes connection to another level.
‘United we stand, divided we fall’ goes the saying, and whilst businesses in Bedfordshire are more than capable of picking themselves up, dusting themselves down, and going again when they’ve taken a tumble, the savvy ones have the connections in place to grab a helping hand when they need it.
Justin Richardson, CEO
Bedfordshire Chamber of Commerce
For more information on how to become a member, visit www.chamber-business.com or call our friendly team on 01582 522448.
