Are you Helping Others Grow Their Businesses?

Wow, that almost sounds heretical! Why would a busy person spend their valuable helping another business person grow their business?

Well… I learned many years ago, when I was in the food service business, that I could NOT satisfy all of the menu needs of my regular customers and most people do like variety. So I began to refer my customers to other LOCAL eating establishments that offered different menu items, with the suggestion they mention that we ‘sent them over’.

Amazingly (but not really surprising) we started seeing new customers who were referred to us by our ‘neighboring’ restaurants. Even though this experience was in the food service industry I have found it to work in other areas.

Another useful habit is to refer complimentary Local businesses. The advantage of referring complementary businesses is that it allows you to tap into a new customer base by partnering with businesses that offer related products or services but don’t directly compete with you, ultimately leading to increased sales and market reach for both companies involved, while providing added value to your existing customers by offering a more complete solution.

One real asset all businesses have today is Social Media Platforms; i.e. Facebook, X, BlueSky, Alignable, and MeWe. Using these sites, and joining Groups, allows a business to interact with others in similar situations and when one finds another business that is worthy of mention it is so easy to do.

I have a client, an author who built a huge following by commenting and mentioning the work of other authors on her Social Media Sites. It seems when readers see this activity they are curious to find out more about the person commenting and mentioning and follow up wanting more information, typ[ically leading that person to the author’s website.

That leads to another VERY successful habit I have developed over the years. I spend time reading articles written by interesting people in my same field of interest and commenting, with relevance, on their websites. My name in the comment is hyperlinked to my website and others reading the comment typically will click on the name to learn more. I have entered relevant Keywords in Google Alerts and get notifications of articles posted by others, which I then read and comment on if appropriate.

Here are a couple of other suggestions that fit the Helping Others Grow Their Businesses

Knowledge sharing:

Sharing industry insights, best practices, and technical expertise with others.
Networking:

Connecting individuals with potential customers, partners, or investors through your existing network.
Collaboration:

Partnering with other businesses to cross-promote products or services, leverage complementary skillsets, and reach new markets