Tony Harrison : Client Attraction | Business Networking | Social Media

Would you like some support to grow your business?

Posted by Tony º February 9, 2012 º NABO Networking High Wycombe º 0 comments

What’s your experience of attending a business networking meeting? Have you been pressured to attend every time and bring referrals (even for people you don’t really know). Maybe you’ve had countless business cards thrust into your hand from people you’ve no reason to meet again. Perhaps you’ve attended the ‘free’ meetings that seem to be everywhere only to realise that most of those present are ‘living hand to mouth’, would never be able to afford your services and just don’t have the contacts you seek.

You won’t find either at NABO High Wycombe. A recurring feedback after each NABO meeting is about having the space to meet other serious business owners, to exchange ideas and to counter some of the loneliness we experience.

Running through NABO – in our DNA – is the wish to give away for free as much knowledge and support as we can. Pop over to NABO.biz and you’ll get free access to our 120 day business accelerator program. There’s some gold in these valuable resources.

Here’s an audio that Jonathan Jay NABO’s founder recorded with Celia Delaney offering some great tips for ways to get more clients. Like much of what we offer, it’s free.

Listen, then register for the next NABO High Wycombe meeting. You don’t need to be a member, but we hope you’ll see the value in joining us*.

We meet every other Thursday and our next meeting is on Thursday February 16^th from 6.30 to 8.30pm at Uplands House (the DeVere Conference Centre) Four Ashes Road, Cryers Hill, High Wycombe HP15 6LB. Your investment is £15 contribution towards venue fees and includes a hot supper. Prior registration is essential as we have to confirm numbers to the venue – booking deadline is Wednesday 9th at 10.00 am.

*You can visit up to four times without becoming a member. However if you agree that your business will benefit from the privileges of membership you can join on your first visit for just £149+VAT per annum (otherwise £300 +VAT). Membership is open only to business owners, but there are no restrictions like only one per business discipline.
To find out more visit the website.

Book your place either by emailing me, calling me on 07817 401848 or book online now.

Where have all the networkers gone?

Have you noticed how attendance at many networking events seems to have dived in the last few months?

Maybe your experience is different. I attend several events each week, some structured and some open and ‘free’. I’ve noticed attendance levels in many groups falling to maybe 10% – 40% of the numbers of even a few months ago. Why?

Sure many businesses are suffering from tough economic pressures, but surely that’s the time when we need to market more, not less. When money’s tight we need to network more effectively and no doubt that means avoiding the events that don’t deliver against our objectives.

NABO Networking launched in High Wycombe late September. We structured our meetings to offer more than any other networking group, indeed there is a strong argument to suggest we should change our name to be more reflective of the benefits members get.

You are warmly invited to join us at NABO High Wycombe’s forthcoming networking and business development evening on Thursday November 24^th.

NABO Networking is only open to business owners. Come and meet with other business owners who are serious about growing their business, learning new skills and sharing support.

More than a business networking event, every meeting is carefully structured to create opportunities for you to harness the resources of the group to solve a problem challenging your business; to access insights to grow your business profits from our team of experts (on video) and of course to build your network.

In the video for this meeting Jonathan Jay discusses something which can be one of your most powerful marketing tools, yet many business owners fail to exploit: data capture.

If you are tired of investing money in adverts that fail to produce sales, or wasting time making cold calls, then this will transform the way you think about your list of prospects. As Jonathan explains, your prospects are arguably more important when considering your marketing than your clients. So this video will help you focus on educating your prospects and building a relationship with them rather than making a hard sell.

Not only will you start transforming prospects into happy clients, you’ll never have to make a cold call again

We meet on Thursday November 24^th from 6.30 to 8.30pm at Uplands House (the DeVere Conference Centre) Four Ashes Road, Cryers Hill, High Wycombe HP15 6LB. Your investment is £16 contribution towards venue fees and includes a hot supper. Prior registration is essential as we have to confirm numbers to the venue – booking deadline is Wednesday 23rd at 10.00 am.

To find out more visit the website.

How confident are you that your website is helping to grow your business?

Posted by Tony º October 3, 2011 º Business Networking Tips | Web Site Development º 0 comments

If you are a professional service business serving other businesses, it is very likely that visitors to your website have come either because of recommendation (either word of mouth or on social media) or because they’ve ‘met’ you, or a colleague, either at a business networking event or on social media. I believe the chance that they ‘found you on Google’ no longer justifies the expense of achieving and maintaining a first page listing – competition is just too great.

As Marketing Week states, Business Networking is potentially one of the most cost effective ways of marketing a small professional service business.

Anyone you meet that is moderately interested in what you offer will check you out on both your website (and on social media). Will your website continue the relationship, or will it effectively deliver a ‘cold shower’?

So if networking both online and off is so important in delivering visitors to your website, what are you doing to ensure visitors receive a warm reception?

Does your website help build the relationship?

I contend that the main purpose of a website for a professional service business is to maintain and develop a conversation or relationship until such time as the visitor is ready to do business. Conversations are two way; relationships depend on good communication (just ask any Relate counsellor).

10 Great Networking Tips

Posted by Tony º September 27, 2011 º Business Networking Tips º 0 comments

1. Seek the Relationship not the Sale.

Many people go to networking events to sell, but very few to buy. Focus on building relationships first. People buy (from) people.

2. Be committed to the process.

Go to your chosen networking events regularly. It takes time to build awareness and trust. You will gain more from attending a limited number of events regularly.

3. Be patient.

Good relationships take time to build, but can last a lifetime. Don’t give up if you’re not getting results early.

4. Prepare.

Never just turn up to a meeting. Ideally be aware of the sorts of people who attend the event you are going to. And always prepare what you are going to say when you are (inevitably) asked the question ‘so what do you do?’.

5. Givers gain.

If you can help someone, do so. Givers are always appreciated and usually receive in turn.

6. Listen to what people are saying.

Seek to understand what they are seeking. Remember we have two ears but one mouth.

7. Follow up.

If you say you’ll follow up, ensure that you do. Nothing will dent your reputation more than a failure to keep promises.

8. Ask for what you want.

Be specific; the more specific you can be, the greater the chance that you’ll get what you want.

9. Be confident.

You are an expert in your business and perhaps also an expert in your field.

10. Enjoy yourself.

Networking does take effort and commitment so it’s important to enjoy the process. On the way, you’ll meet lots of interesting people, so enjoy the journey.

Bonus Tip.

Whenever we meet someone networking or otherwise, it is good to remember this is SHOW-TIME. So be positive whatever the state of your business. Business people tend to be naturally optimistic, whatever the economy may be doing. Oh! and SMILE.

So just Why are you in business?

Posted by Tony º August 10, 2011 º Business Coaching º 0 comments

Most of us start a business because we love the technical skill we have, -we love what we do – and then discover that there’s a whole other skill set needed to build a profitable business around our core skill. Michael Gerber writing in the E-Myth Revisited describes this decision to start a business, as ‘an entrepreneurial seizure’. By that he means that we start a business to provide work for us (without there being a boss between us and the customer, ‘creaming off a fat margin’) rather than that we start a Business. In the latter case, it wouldn’t matter what the Business sells, because our interest would be in making the Business run as efficiently and as profitably as was possible. Most of us, me included, start our business to do what we love doing; in my case coaching, training and mentoring; and to:

to have more freedom, to have more fun (doing what we love) or to make more money than when we worked for somebody else.

Many of my prospective clients raise their eyebrows at the idea of having more freedom and tell me of the long hours that they work. And somehow the concept of being in business to have more fun doesn’t sit well with the stress they are feeling. But yes they are certainly in business to make money, and no, often there isn’t as much of that around as they’d like either.

There is real danger in focussing our businesses on making money because it often blinds us to all the other benefits that can come from being self-employed. Now making a profit is vital; make a loss for too long and you go out of business. Where I think many of us go wrong, and I’ve certainly been in that group early in my solo professional life, is to focus on money as more important than any other measure.

Being self employed can give us so much more control over our lives together with the power to make our life more satisfying. I believe it enables us to make a bigger difference in the world.

Thanks to the encouragement of a great business mentor Chris Barrow I have been reading about an Australian dentist Dr Paddi Lund. Read On!

Why a Blog should be at the heart of your online presence.

Posted by Tony º July 8, 2011 º Business Blogging | Web Site Development º 0 comments

It has been estimated that less than 1% of visitors to a web site take any meaningful action. This means that unless you have a way to engage some of the 99+% who don’t you will lose those visitors for ever. Your website needs to begin the process of building a relationship with those visitors. It may take 10, 20, or 30 and more ‘interactions’ with each visitor before they do business with you.

You could add a sign up box for a newsletter or similar, with a gift to encourage the visitor to part with their personal details. Increasingly people are reluctant to give you this. You could invite them to comment on what you’ve written however. Read On!

What is Business Blogging

Posted by Tony º June 8, 2011 º Business Blogging º 0 comments

What is a blog?

Blogger.com has the following definition:

A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world.

WordPress describes a blog as:

“Blog” is an abbreviated version of “weblog,” which is a term used to describe web sites that maintain an ongoing chronicle of information. A blog features diary-type commentary and links to articles on other Web sites, usually presented as a list of entries in reverse chronological order.

How many blogsites are there?

Wikipedia reckoned there were 156 million public blogs in existence in February 2011 websites

It is hard to establish how many of those are active; several sources suggest that the majority of blogs are dormant within 90days of being launched.

What are the benefits of blogging?

I believe the top 5 benefits are: Read On!

What is SEO (Search Engine Optimization)?

Posted by Tony º November 5, 2010 º Web Site Development º 0 comments

What is SEO search engine optimization? Or as one professional SEO practitioner (half) joked ‘search engine optimism’.

Being on the first page of Google for a relevant search term seems to be the holy grail of website promotion. And a goal that some business owners are prepared to pay a small fortune to achieve.

But using fancy search engine optimization techniques to achieve first page status can be a hollow victory. Unless your web site meets the expectations of the visitor, the visit will be fleeting and no business will come your way. And every so often the search engines change the way they rank sites, and your number one slot can overnight become a number one hundred!

In the battle of effective search engine optimization there is one key element that you ignore at your peril.

Great content frequently updated will engage your prospects, help you rank well in search engines and help you grow your business.

So often businesses invest most in the way their site looks, in its visual impact and pay too little attention to the words on the page. Read On!

Are you an Independent Professional wanting to grow your business?