Best Business Networking Groups?

[DragonLady]

Contemplating which business groups to join (and which not to).

We're a small Procurement and Software company, specialising in IT though cover almost everything under the sun. Work a lot with the large multi-nationals, but would very much like to do more with SMEs if we can find a way to get ourselves known.

Any suggestions folks?

 

[Mr D]

How far you willing to travel?
Just thinking giving you a good network group in Stirling will not help much if you want to travel only within Surrey.

 

[DragonLady]

Good point!

Based in Fife (Scotland), but we work all over the UK.

 

[AstEver]

For example Edinburgh Connections (you may want to attend Edinburgh Business Show on 29th November organised by them), FSB, Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, ClubFive55. Go to a few networking events and select a couple that you would stick with.

 

[DragonLady]

Thank you. I admit I hadn't thought of rocking up unless a member, and didn't want to fork out for various memberships until I had a taste of what would work for us. I'll get in touch will all you've suggested and get along to their next meets.

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

Well for £36 you can become a full member of this site because I have found it very useful over the years.

It has gained some good business and you can always PM one of the usual suspects if you need advice.
Always be prepared to help other members

 

[DragonLady]

Thank you It's on my list. Need to run it past my partner, but I think he'll approve.

 

[fisicx]

How do small businesses identify and procure software? I suspect it’s not via a networking group. If I needed a widget assessing application Google would be a good place to start. If I did, would I see your website top of the results?

 

[Clinton]

Contemplating which business groups to join...?

Why?

Anyway, if you want a combo of business network and cult, try BNI.

 

[Mark T Jones]

Why?

Anyway, if you want a combo of business network and cult, try BNI.

Harsh, but true

OP. I’m pretty sure your business doesn’t lend itself to generic small-business networking. My advice would be to identify a key target market and look at where they go to network

 

[mattk]

As @fisicx says, you need to think like your potential customers. How do they search for solutions like yours? Google, industry insights (Gartner etc.), conferences and personal recommendation would all be higher than business networking in my opinion.

Of course, you may be doing all of those things successfully.

 

[DragonLady]

Why?

Anyway, if you want a combo of business network and cult, try BNI.

I'm not sure if that's a dig (can't think why you would, but the internet can be a strange place). Had a Google of BNI and on first glance I'm not sure it's what we're looking for.

 

[DragonLady]

Harsh, but true

OP. I’m pretty sure your business doesn’t lend itself to generic small-business networking. My advice would be to identify a key target market and look at where they go to network

Thank you. Maybe I've been out of the 'small' end for too long and no longer comprehend company size with any clarity. Will address it.

 

[fisicx]

Can small businesses afford your services?

 

[DragonLady]

As @fisicx says, you need to think like your potential customers. How do they search for solutions like yours? Google, industry insights (Gartner etc.), conferences and personal recommendation would all be higher than business networking in my opinion.

Of course, you may be doing all of those things successfully.

Thank you. Extremely useful thoughts. We've previously focused on the large organizations but want to go with the, to us, smaller ones. Sorry, I'm not wording this very well. I think the cold has addled my brain. Will go drink Lemsip and hopefully come back a bit more coherent!

 

[DragonLady]

Can small businesses afford your services?

They can if we flex our pricing structure, which we're willing to do as a) we want to be more flexible in how we work, i.e. more 'ad hoc' clients rather than running (large organizations) major programmes, and b) we believe in giving something back - whilst they probably couldn't afford our usual rates, they should be able to afford our reduced rates and will gain the benefit of what we can offer.

 

[DragonLady]

Thank you all. This has been incredibly useful.

Definitely food for thought and a reset of what size organizations we can and should be aiming at. One of our (my) particular drivers is wanting to help organizations in submitting tenders. As the person who receives these on the other end, I'd love to be able to get in with the providers of such goods and services to help them with their submissions.

 

[DragonLady]

How do small businesses identify and procure software? I suspect it’s not via a networking group. If I needed a widget assessing application Google would be a good place to start. If I did, would I see your website top of the results?

More food for thought, thank you. I'm thinking I need to be (much!) clearer on our offerings and determine what fits in which group. Definitely starting to properly consider what we would be selling in a network group, e.g. the tendering support.

I feel a large whiteboard session coming on!

 

[fisicx]

I can’t even find your website. So that needs fixing.

 

[DragonLady]

I can’t even find your website. So that needs fixing.

It's down for maintenance / a rewrite, though should appear with words to that effect. I'll investigate, thank you.

 

[gpietersz]

I'm not sure if that's a dig (can't think why you would, but the internet can be a strange place).

Not particularly a dig at you, just @Clinton being Clinton.

It's down for maintenance / a rewrite, though should appear with words to that effect.

Completely taking down a website (and replacing with "down for maintanance") for any length of time (i.e. longer that it takes to apply some sort of update or similar) is usually a mistake.

 

[fisicx]

It's down for maintenance / a rewrite, though should appear with words to that effect. I'll investigate, thank you.

That’s a really bad move. Leave the site up and build the new content in the background.

However....

I can’t find anything on google. You are missing completely.

 

[DragonLady]

Not particularly a dig at you, just @Clinton being Clinton.

Completely taking down a website (and replacing with "down for maintanance") for any length of time (i.e. longer that it takes to apply some sort of update or similar) is usually a mistake.

Thank you.

Good to know. The aim was to get it back up before we started this phase. Will put it at the top of the project pile.

 

[DragonLady]

That’s a really bad move. Leave the site up and build the new content in the background.

However....

I can’t find anything on google. You are missing completely.

Thank you. Noted. We're onto it. The previous was (with hindsight) not the best, but we'd never had to rely on it so not such an issue. Now we want it to be our shop front, hence taking it down and rewriting before putting it out there, however your point is taken and we'll fix it.

Will check what info I've put on here (my apologies, I joined some time ago but for various reasons didn't visit).

 

[DragonLady]

Ah. Thank you fur nothing. Checked my profile. Will update it as we wound up that business. It was 'hosting' but squeezed out by the big ones, and other businesses more effective.

 

[DragonLady]

Ah. Thank you fur nothing. Checked my profile. Will update it as we wound up that business. It was 'hosting' but squeezed out by the big ones, and other businesses more effective.

Blinking heck! Sorry, should've proofread that one. Posted on my phone and it's come out with the wrong opening words for sure. I was aiming for "Thank you for noting...". Blinking heck. My apologies as it reads so rude.