How to Grow Your Online Business Through Effective Networking Strategies

Discover the hidden power of networking to help your business grow! In this episode, I’ll show you how building real connections—both online and in person—has greatly increased my visibility, provided strong support, and led to many new opportunities. Join me as I share practical tips on how to grow your network and find the valuable business opportunities that come from connecting with other entrepreneurs.


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Chapters

• 0:00 The Power of Networking in E-Commerce
• 10:39 Building Relationships and Networking in Business

Transcript

Carrie Saunders: 0:44

I know for me, running an online business can feel lonely. I'm sure you're in this situation at least some of the time. One of the most powerful tools for growth, though, is something you may not immediately think of, and it's networking. Building relationships with others helps you grow, open up new opportunities to you, work with like-minded individuals and really help fill in the gaps of what you may not excel at knowledge-wise, while you can help others with your knowledge base, too, and really create that genuine connection. Today, we're going to explore some of the surprising ways you can network, even as an online business. That doesn't take a whole lot of time or energy and it's super fulfilling.

Carrie Saunders: 1:26

Welcome to the e-commerce made easy podcast. I'm your host, ki Saunders. When we started this business, all I had was a couch, a laptop and a nine month old my main goal To help others. Now, with over 20 years in the e-commerce building industry, and even more than that in web development, I have seen a lot. I love breaking down the hard tech into easily understandable bits to help others be successful in their online business. Whether you're a seasoned e-commerce veteran or just starting out, you've come to the right place. So sit back, relax and let's dive into the world of e-commerce together. Welcome back to the e-commerce made easy podcast.

Carrie Saunders: 2:01

Today we're focusing on a key element of business growth that often gets overlooked, and it's networking. I know I have had times in my life and running this business where it was something that I didn't focus on and something that I kind of just let you know slide. And whether you're an introvert or an extrovert, networking can be an essential part of growing your online business. I know what I've jumped back into. This is really helped me grow as a business owner and grow my audience and grow my connections too, and it's not just about collecting business cards or creating LinkedIn connections etc. It's about building genuine relationships with other business owners and like-minded individuals, and it can help lead to collaboration, support and new opportunities. So, first off, we need to understand what is the power of networking, and it's not just about who you know, it's about who also knows you. I know once I started purposely networking online in business groups, I started getting shout outs from other business owners and people asked the question who's good at search engine optimization, who's good at website technology? Who can help me do X, y or Z? And it wasn't something that I expected from them and it wasn't really something I had pondered. But when you look back at it and think about it, sure, yes, those people that you know, like, like and trust that are also other business colleagues. When somebody asks a question about who's great at this, you're going to come to mind, especially if you created a great relationship with them.

Carrie Saunders: 3:39

So building a strong network of contacts really helps gain more visibility into your business and onto your business really, and think about it as like a long-term investment. It's similar to search engine optimization. It's a long-term investment. The relationships you build today can lead to opportunities years down the line. I know originally our business was built on word of mouth and referral and technically it was from other businesses but they were our customers as business customers. But that word of mouth has spread and now a lot of the word of mouth that gets around to us as people online is through other business connections that aren't necessarily our customers too. So you can really work at it either way. It's not always about immediately gaining anything from it, but really nurturing the connections that you have to help you grow over time. And, like I said, it's something that's a long-term investment. It's going to kind of create this good type of snowball effect, similar to how spending a little bit of time on search engine optimization creates that snowball effect and things start really getting going really good once you've been at it for a while and really put a little bit of time into it regularly.

Carrie Saunders: 4:55

So one of the ways that you can do this is you can leverage online communities. Sometimes the best online communities that you can leverage are general business ones, or it could be ones that are specific to your niche. Right. For me, some of the ones with the best community that I found and the best connections are the ones that are business other entrepreneurs, other online business owners. I really found a great set of business friends within there. Now, some of these communities free and some of them are paid and you know it's part of a membership, after a program, for example and I've created really good and genuine relationships in it, and I have found over time that I am really getting shout outs when people ask these questions, like I was just talking about.

Carrie Saunders: 5:43

So find a community that you really resonate with. You want to find one. Obviously, that is not spamming, because that's one of the things that drives me crazy, right, if you get in, say, a Facebook group or something that's spamming, that can be really annoying and distracting, but finding ones that are generally there to help other people, you're going to find a lot more connections and better connections when you find one that's really helpful for others. We have a free Facebook group community too, and we will link to that in the show notes. That is really great for that. It's great for the business fostering and a lot of people will help each other out. People will ask a technical web question and sometimes some of the other people in the group will answer it before. I've seen the notification to help answer it.

Carrie Saunders: 6:29

So it's a really great community of online business owners that are in there, and so when you are looking to leverage your online communities like that, you know kind of think, think outside the box and really just try a few and if, if it doesn't, if it's not a good fit, just leave the group. It's as simple as that. But you do want to have purposeful time, so I try to set a time limit on how much time I'm going to spend into these communities, because we know social media can be quite the time sink. I'm sure you're. I'm sure you totally get that. But when you do have this purposeful because it was kind of hard to come up purposeful time set, then you're going to really reap the benefits of it. Whether it's a 15 minute timer or a 30 minute timer, you know what you know your schedule best and why you can fit in there, and it might vary on the day too, but have that purposeful time to really reach out to these communities, interact with them, see what they're asking. It's going to help you get a good pulse too, on just business in general. So I highly recommend leveraging online communities like you might find on Facebook or LinkedIn.

Carrie Saunders: 7:38

Also, something that I just did last week is intending an industry event and conference. So last week I was at Podcast Movement in Washington DC. I had a blast, but what I knew was part of my purpose for being there was networking and talking to other business owners, talking to other podcasters and really growing that connection that I started fostering online in some of these communities I just referred to. So some of the people going I kind of knew via Facebook groups and so we purposely met up. We purposely got to know each other. I also branched out and got to know some people that you know I didn't already know online.

Carrie Saunders: 8:17

But when you attend these industry events and conferences, that's really the best, one of the best ways to really network and really grow a good connection, because you're face to face. You can read the other person's body language. You can really get to know them on a deeper level many times than you can you know just like on Facebook or Instagram or LinkedIn or any of the socials. So, making sure that you find some relevant industry events and conferences and I challenge you to go to about one a year it's been a while since I've been to one obviously because you know COVID past few years and things like that and I've never, I don't think, been to one was such intention of networking rather than learning.

Carrie Saunders: 8:59

Now, of course, I wanted to learn more about being a better podcaster and things like that, but I also wanted to create those genuine business connections. It was just something that I knew I wanted to do and I was successful at it and I highly recommend it for you as well, and then we can tag off that and go into building genuine relationships. So when you're creating these connections online, really get to know that person and obviously you know everybody's going to have different boundaries on what personal information they will share. But you can still really get to know the person, even if they don't want to share a whole lot of personal information. But you can still get to know, like their values, how they run their business, what things you might have in common. And when you build those genuine relationships, that helps you be more memorable and it helps them be more memorable to you whenever you might be able to refer somebody to them as well, and whenever you have that giving more than receiving, where you're trying to give and help the other person, you're going to receive so much back tenfold. So when you're building these genuine relationships, you know, think about how can I help this person. You know, I know that Amy is great at website design, for example. So whenever somebody asks a website design question, I'm going to point them to Amy I'm just kind of making that name up. Or Facebook ads I know somebody that's really great at Facebook ads. So anytime somebody asks, you know I need some help with Facebook ads, I will refer them to Megan, who's one of my business friends that I know now. So really get to build those genuine relationships and get to know them so that you can give back as well, that's going to come back to you tenfold. It really is.

Carrie Saunders: 10:40

And then another item that we need to do is make sure we follow up and stay connected. So when you have that purposeful time so you have 20 minutes a day you're going to be purposeful in these business social groups. Maybe have another small chunk of time where you follow up and stay connected to the relationships you've already built. It's kind of like our friends. If we don't spend time with our friends, we kind of lose connection and lose that genuine knowledge of them. So we want to make sure that we stay connected. Maybe once a week you're checking in with specific people, so maybe it's not even every day. Maybe Friday is your check-in Friday and you're going to check in with five of your business friends and maybe switch the next week to a different set of five business friends. But make those follow-ups and connections really truly meaningful. And, you know, talk to them. You know what's going on in your business right now. I'm curious. You know what you're working on. You know be very curious with this and don't have an agenda behind it, of course. And the more we're curious and don't have agenda behind it, the more that's going to really foster and nurture that relationship and make it even better for the long term.

Carrie Saunders: 12:00

Another thing that I have done a lot recently is collaborate and partner with others. So I have guests spoken in one of these Facebook groups I've got in my mind a few times this past year as well as another one that's a paid group it's like a membership group afterwards and I have really I enjoyed giving back. That's one of the reasons why I do the podcast is I just love giving back and I love helping, and so me talking and helping others in these groups has actually come back to me in unexpected ways. You know I'll have people referring people to me. Some of the people listening might want our products or services. It's not something I expected. I showed up to help and that was all I showed up for. I didn't show up to receive. So collaborating and partnering with others one gets you even more well-known for that person, that business friend that you're partnering with, and two, it spreads the word about you with all the connections that they have, the word about you with all the connections that they have. So I highly recommend you know figure out how many times a month or a quarter that you want to guest, speak in somebody else's group or something like that.

Carrie Saunders: 13:14

Whatever might make sense for you and your business, but collaborating and partnering with others can really help grow your circle and really help. And then also we want to learn from our network. So within our network of business friends, you know, everybody's got different skill sets. Some of them might be similar to yours, but they have a little bit of a twist to it. Some of them, you know, maybe wonderful creative writers, but maybe you're not a great creative writer. So when you're learning from others and absorbing some of their information too, it's going to make you a little bit better on some of the skill sets that maybe. Maybe you need to refine a little bit more and get a little bit better. And I also find just watching how the industry is currently interacting and acting can really help give you some really good insights on your business, especially when you're in groups that have other business owners that are similar to you and maybe have the same niche as you or maybe they're parallel niches and it kind of crosses over in some way. So coming with a learning mindset as well as the connecting mindset is also good, but we do want to purposely more.

Carrie Saunders: 14:20

So do the networking mindset for this type of you know talk that we're talking about right now, because I feel like a lot of business owners, especially post COVID, have forgotten about networking. It's actually something I'm considering going to our local chamber of commerce regularly Maybe I pick it once a quarter or twice a year, but I think it would be really good if I went to our local chamber of commerce I'm sure you probably have one near you as well and go to some of their networking events. So something for food for thought there to really think about. All right, so that's all I have for this week's episode. I hope you really enjoyed it and keep in mind that networking.

Carrie Saunders: 14:58

Just make it purposeful, don't make it overwhelming, and make it be the amount of time that you feel you can make time for. Don't look for um for an opening. Like you know, we we only have the time for things that we make time for. So make sure you make that purposeful time. Set it aside, block it out to really do networking to help grow your business way more than you ever thought. Grow your joy and satisfaction with your business because you've got others that are there by your side. It's just something I highly recommend and cannot rave about enough. And if you're enjoying this podcast episode, make sure you share it with a friend right now so that they can get benefits that you're getting from our podcast. To read us on Apple podcasts, if you would love to and we would love to hear from you you can always email us at podcast at BCS engineeringcom with any comments or questions or things you'd like us to feature on the show. We're always willing to listen to your feedback. Thanks, and we will see you next week.