EPISODE RECAP:
Your business network is incredibly important for business growth. Let’s look at how to grow your business network and what they are.
The first thing to consider is what a business network can do for you. What are your business needs from every day all the way to long term? The things that you don’t have the funds or space to do in-house. This is where the community comes into place. They will provide the resources and services you need and can’t do all alone. This makes business networks vital for entrepreneurs and small businesses alike, but they’re smart to have for any business.
One of the most common resources is labor. Benefits, payroll, labor laws, and codes, and even timekeeping are huge when hiring for your business. It can get complicated fast, especially where remote work is concerned. This makes vendors that work with finance and HR a big help for businesses.
Finance, taxes, and payroll may be hard to let go of, but they can be a huge pain if done poorly. There’s no shame in looking for an accounting vendor to free up some time for you.
Material vendors are another place to look at when considering business networks. We at Leapin’ Lizard Labels searched for other companies and vendors who had our sustainability ideals in mind. Places that would supply us with water-soluble inks and biodegradable paper that we now consider part of our business network daily. Hard goods are a focal point of your business. Make sure to understand what other vendors of hard goods can work for you because it doesn’t take much for a supply chain to be disrupted. Have contingencies in place, just in case.
Marketing is another hard one to give away. It can be difficult to hire marketing specialists and let them create content for you. But, they often have years of experience and degrees that make them highly suited for the role, and like with finance, it frees up more time for you in other aspects of your business.
Knowing what facets of your business you may want to network with is one thing. The other big hill to climb is how to find a network. At Leapin’ Lizards, we needed to find a group with the same goals. Plus, we looked for businesses that already worked with upcoming industries and industries we wanted to work with and have customers in.
One of the ways to find these groups is to search for events and online groups with resources and businesses you have in mind to work with. Your community is your best friend when finding the first parts of your network. Sometimes the old-school ways of just meeting with people in public forums is a great way to get started. As well, don’t forget LinkedIn or a good old-fashioned business newsletter. They’re both full of new and exciting people and opportunities.
Now, one thing to remember when looking for a network is how to vet them. You don’t want to work with someone who doesn’t align with your values and goals or, even worse, takes your money and runs. See their business history, contact some of their past vendors, and get to know them and how they deal with conflict. Even asking other members of your network about a new vendor you’ve seen is a valid way to see the word about them. This will give you valuable insight into whether the vendor is a good fit for your business.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
Robby
Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for joining in on another episode of leaps, unbound. I'm so excited to talk about our topic today. I'm Robby, and I'm joined with Courtney. All right, and we're gonna dive right in. Today's episode is titled building your business network. And I mean, it's just so important to have They say it takes a village to raise a child. Absolutely. It takes a network to raise a business. Absolutely. So let's dive into this court going ahead and tell us like, why is it important to have a business network?
Courtney
Oh, my gosh, well, as businesses and entrepreneurs and business leaders know that it can community is so important to be able to go to your community for answers, and really be able to kind of figure out what your needs are. So what are those basic business needs that you may need, but you also don't have the funds to bring it in house. And so having that community that you can turn to is incredibly important. You also want to be able to vet vendors that align with your business core values. And it's really easy to chat with your community and say, hey, you know, what my business is? Can you help me find a vendor? That would be really, really great for X amount? Yeah,
Robby
building like a referral network.
Courtney
100%. And so, you know, on that, I would love you, Robby, to talk about the top resources needed for businesses. Yeah.
Robby
So, you know, we've said it before, and it's so true entrepreneurs wear every hat in the business, right. But there comes a time, especially as you grow your business, that there are going to be functions that you just don't have time for, you know, you have the big picture to think about. So you really have to look at bringing in someone else to provide some of these key services. So probably one of the biggest ones that I that I can think of, if you're going to be hiring people, and working with a team, there are a lot of regulations and compliance issues and laws, and you know, things like payroll, and you know, benefits that you have to think about, that can get extremely complicated, especially in the day of remote work. Right. So every state has different laws, it doesn't matter what state you're in, it matters, what state your employee is. And so hiring a vendor for HR, payroll and benefits, or, you know, working with a company or even a standalone, you know, resource, a resource provider, in this in this field can be extremely helpful. Next, and this is one that I think a lot of entrepreneurs are worried to give up the reins on. It's the money, yes, entrepreneurs run on tight budgets, you know, maybe they're going for their, you know, Series B funding series, A, whatever, you know, and they don't quite have everything yet, so they have a very tight rein on money. But if there's one person you don't want to piss off, it's Uncle Sam. So Right. So someone to handle your quarterly tax filings, someone to handle your payroll tax filing, your annual taxes, your state taxes, your city and local taxes. I mean, I'm getting a headache, just thinking about all of the accounting that has to be done. Plus, closing out the books every month, and developing profit and loss statements and, you know, financial forecasting, all of that stuff is stuff that an accountant can handle for you to kind of free you up to think about the bigger picture. Absolutely. You also want to potentially look at some, you know, vendors and partners for your materials. Alright, so these are like the hard goods, the things that you're selling your products, your, the materials that you use to make your products. For example, like at leaping lizard labels, we have such a strong focus on sustainability, that it became essential for us to look for materials providers that shared our, you know, that shared our sustainable goals. So, you know, like, we look for providers that sell recycled materials or water soluble inks so that we cut down on waste and we cut down on you know, environmental pollutants
Courtney
so Not only that, I would say materials, like when you're talking about hard goods, some of those vendors may stop producing certain materials. So you need to be able to have a backup. Yes, you can't just go to one person and one business or one company or one resource and say, I'm putting all my eggs in your basket, because then if the eggs start disappearing, and you can't restore, you can't source from them anymore. Your clients and customers are gonna want to know what's going on.
Robby
Yeah, and I think I think the supply chain issues of the last couple of years have really taught us how important it is to have backups for your backups that are also backups to your backups. Exactly. You know, so, so yeah, so definitely be diverse with your material vendors and your material providers. And make sure that you have contingency plans in place. 100%. Another area where you may need a resource is marketing professionals, maybe you need to bring on a content writer or someone to help you with social media, or someone that is really good with, you know, email. These are all jobs that yeah, you could probably do yourself, you could probably learn the skills if you don't already have them. But again, you got to be thinking big picture. You got to be focused on growth operations, sales, you know, streamlining processes and building out your business, you don't have time to necessarily focus on the minutia. Right. Absolutely. So and then the last one, and I think that this is extremely important for for any entrepreneurs, business owners, small, medium sized business owners or leaders in general, have a mentor, have a business coach, you know, have someone that's going to be able to look at your business, your situations, from 36,000 feet and say, or be in a non biased, you know, impartial opinion on any situation that comes up. You know, as entrepreneurs, sometimes we get so focused on what's right in front of us that we can't see what's left and right, you know, and let alone up, down and all around totally, you know, and so having someone that can provide that, that non biased opinion, and can help you see, you know, different perspectives is just essential.
Courtney
I would agree with that 100%.
Robby
If you're looking for high quality labels, stickers, banners, floor decals, and window clings look no further than leaping lizard labels. We use top notch products to ensure the perfect delivery every time. Our family owned business has been serving the continental US for over 13 years. We're so sure you'll love our products. We're offering new customers 20% off their first order. With no order minimums and no setup fees. There's zero risk to trying us out. Email us at team at leaping lizard labels.com. And mention coupon code leaps unbound for 20% off your first order. That's team at leaping lizard labels.com mentioning coupon code leaps unbound for 20% off your first order. So in thinking about these resources, HR, accounting, materials, marketing, business coaching, and there are so many others, but these are just kind of the ones that come to top of mind for me. Yes, and ones that I've I've kind of outsourced in the past. What, what comes next, like how do we go about because I know that you do a ton of networking? Yes. And you're always out on the road? Me I sit in my little home office with my dog and you know, generally shut out the world now. But you're always on the road. Yes. And you're always looking at resources for leaping lizard labels. Talk to us about how you go about sourcing some of these resources.
Courtney
Yeah, absolutely. I think the most important thing is finding groups that align with your business and the focus of your business. And so for us at leaping lizard, we are so diverse in that we offer products to a myriad of different industries, which is amazing. So I try to find networking groups that align to those different industries. And especially when a specific industry is booming. I try to be front and center. Because I want to find out. Firstly, what are the regulations? What are things that people are needing for their labels? What kinds of orders are these businesses putting in as a new emerging market where people are just dipping their toes in? Or is it a market that's you know, really boomed and everybody that comes to us are going to be these massive companies that we're at actually putting lots and lots of resources behind. Yeah. What are the trends? What are the trends? Yeah. And so we I try to find networking groups that really hone in on everything that aligns with our business and the clientele that we're trying to acquire, essentially, yeah, we also look at running business specific groups. So I've had the opportunity to lead a marketing mastermind for about 10 to 15 Women for six years going on six years, I can't even believe it. It's crazy. And so what I do is I work with women in different verticals. And we come together on a monthly basis. And we bring up all of the different business marketing topics. And because my focus with leaf and lizard is marketing and sales, we really try to bring it to the forefront, different marketing tactics that are 100%, you know, top of the line, right now we need to be front and center for different marketing tactics that we're running. And then really also having a really good kind of push pull balance, where what worked with for somebody may work for me, or may it I learned from this. And so we're just a group that gets together and really pushes ideas and pulls ideas out of each other. And that's really cool. Yeah, um, I also love to go to events that tie into specific needs,
Robby
like, as in if you're thirsty, go to a networking event in a bar, oh,
Courtney
that's something I can do. And I'm very fond of, by, you know, having needs like marketing groups, or social groups or groups online that you can return to for any kind of resource and finding events in your community. The biggest thing is, we've talked a lot about building community and building these resources, try to search in your local community where you can be face to face and meet these people. I think that's incredibly important. That
Robby
actually brings out something on one of my best networking opportunities that I ever did. And I got the most out of was actually joining the Advisory Board have a nonprofit here in town? Absolutely. I made so many great relationships that helped me get to the next phase of my business.
Courtney
That is fantastic. Yeah. And I think that we sometimes it's very easy to overlook something like that, like joining your local chamber. But truly, you network with them for three, four months, all of a sudden, your business is booming. And you didn't even know because it's network marketing right
Robby
there. Well, yeah. And like B and I, you know, there are BNI chapters all over the country. And while some people think that it's like, it's kind of an old school way of networking, you can't, like you can't really pass up the opportunity, you get to give a 92nd commercial every week to a room of 30 people Yes. And get to ask them what you're looking for,
Courtney
or even like going kind of far left on this Toastmasters. Yeah, you know, learning how to publicly speak and publicly speak about your business and network with others is so key. So important. So that's one way to go about it, as well as finding local events. Also looking at social media groups, like business specific groups on LinkedIn. And I would say that this is a great opportunity, because not only it is less of a local feel, but it's more global. So you're getting perspective from people all over the world, possibly in these business groups to really help you figure out what you need. Absolutely. And then I would also highly suggest following a couple really great business newsletters, yes, they come in on a daily basis, they give you lots of insight into what you might need. And it actually it's so funny. I open them every morning, I read them and all of a sudden, my brain is thinking about 8 million other awesome opportunities for a leap and lizard just from reading that one newsletter. Sure, sure. So you know, those are some really great resources. Now, I would say that it's also incredibly important to that relationship. Oh, yes. When it comes to the oh my gosh, so in your experience, Robbie, how would you vet these relationships? Yeah,
Robby
I mean, we all hear the horror stories about you know, vendors who run off with the money or don't supply or, you know, don't produce. Yeah, vetting Meet your vendors is is probably, in my opinion, the most important step of this whole of the whole process. So when you're looking at that, you want to find a vendor that's going to align with your personal and business beliefs and values. That's number one. So you want to ask the hard hitting questions, you know, what are your policies on sustainability? How do you handle conflict? You know, if if we have an issue together? Do you have a clause in your contract that says, I'm always right, you know, like, what is what is the what's the fine print that you know? And how does that align with your values? The other thing that you're going to want to look at, especially if you're investing money in this relationship, like, let's use the example of a materials provider, like, if you are investing money, and they're requiring you to pay for materials upfront before delivery, what is their financial situation? Are they sturdy? What's their reputation, read reviews, contact other people that work with them, and really look at, you know, how they handle situations and what their finances are. Because, you know, if you're going to be turning over 1000s and 1000s of dollars to someone, you want to know that that product is coming on the other end, absolutely. Likewise, if you are going to be trusting someone to run your, you know, like payroll, or accounting or HR functions, you want to make sure that they're the right type of person that you can really trust. So you're going to want to ask questions, you're going to want to ask for references, you're going to want to hear success stories. One of my favorite questions to ask in these situations is also tell me about something that went wrong and how we solved it together? Absolutely. So you know, I think that that's essential. And then the other thing is, you know, you've built these networking groups, you've built these groups of people, whether it's through BNI, or Toastmasters or social media. You've built these groups, ask other members of the group, talk to other members of the group and say, Hey, John Smith over here is offering me accounting services. What experience do you have with them? You know, or have you heard anything, just that that vet vet vet vet,
Courtney
that is such that is such good information? And you know, and the other thing is, is if you as listeners have any tips and tricks about building your business network, we would absolutely love love, love to hear them.
Robby
Absolutely. We'll pop the email in the description of the episode. You know, shoot us an email, let us know about your tips. And who knows, we may feature them on a future episode. All right, so speaking of social network groups, I want to go ahead and give a little shout out to leaping lizard and our social network group. We have a LinkedIn group called leaping lizard loyals. Yes. So search for that on LinkedIn and join the group and join in the discussion we you know, we're going to be talking about a lot of these key things here that we've been talking about on leaves Unbound, and we're gonna be giving you the option or the opportunity in that group to respond to some of these episodes and some of our topics. So make sure you go on LinkedIn search for leaping lizard loyals, join the group interact with us, Courtney and I are in the group so you can fan out on us if you want to. But yeah, so join us on there. We would love to connect with you, Courtney, any parting thoughts?
Courtney
You know, I would just say build that network. Don't be afraid. Ask questions that people out and just enjoy the process.
Robby
Yes, absolutely. All right. This has been another episode. Remember to take your leaps, unbound.
Courtney
Thank you so much and have a great day.
