Small Business Big World
New episodes every Tuesday discussing the challenges, adventures and fun of being a small business owner. Each week we'll delve into various small business topics, from real-world DEI considerations to selling your business, using video to market your business, unique benefit offerings for your employees and so much more. Curated by the crew at Paper Trails.
Small Business Big World
Networking Strategies for Small Business Growth
Can networking truly transform your small business? Join us on Small Business Big World as we sit down with Ashley Winslow from Bangor Savings, who brings her wealth of experience in networking to the table. With insights from her own initiative, Ashley uncovers the secrets to expanding your business's reach through a community built on trust and professionalism. Learn why commitment is crucial and how surrounding yourself with reliable professionals can be a game-changer for your referrals and client relationships.
We also share actionable strategies for making networking a consistent and effective part of your business routine. From engaging new contacts with confidence to setting clear goals and seeking advice from seasoned networkers, Ashley and I explore the nuances of both formal and informal networking events. Get inspired to start, commit, and grow on your networking journey with tips that prioritize meaningful connections over superficial ones.
This is Small Business Big World, our weekly podcast prepared by the team at Paper Trails. Owning and running a small business is hard. Each week, we'll dive into the challenges, headaches, trends, fun and excitement of running a small business. After all, small businesses are the heartbeat of America and our team is here to keep them beating. Welcome to Small Business Big World, our weekly podcast, where we talk about all the exciting things that we deal with in running and managing a small business. Today, my guest is Ashley Wenzel with Bangor Savings. Thanks for joining me, Thank you.
Speaker 1:Excellent. Today we're going to talk about networking in small businesses and how to be a networking pro. Before we do that, I always like to remind everybody like, follow, share, rate, review, subscribe. We are across the internet. Anywhere you want to be watching or listening, we are there. Be sure to like, follow, rate, review, subscribe. I'm sure I forgot one. John always yells at me for forgetting one. We got that one. So, and certainly if there's any questions you have for us or any of our guests, you certainly can email podcast at papertrailscom and we will get those questions answered. So, ashley, you are a networking wizard, right. So what do you think networking is for small businesses? What does that generally look like, and so forth.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, the way that I look at networking is like you and I both have physical locations and we have a certain amount of employees. The way that I've always seen networking is that's growing your almost like employee base. So it's growing the people that are out there spreading the word, looking for opportunities for you and vice versa, and just it's really building that group of you know, highly professional, highly motivated, really great people to be around. That's great.
Speaker 1:So you know, we always look for folks that compliment our business, right? That our clients are also working with those types of people, right? So what does that look like for you? Like, who are those kind of folks that you kind of look to work with mostly?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, in my networking group in particular, we have everything from you know. We have commercial cleaning, we have divorce attorneys, we have people that spray for ticks and mosquitoes, we have, you know, nurses. We have quite literally everything that you can think of, and it's amazing how many connections you can find for people even though they're so far outside of your industry. What I always try to tell my team and other networkers is the most important thing is to be the type of person that you would want to send your best customer to. So that's what I try to be for my network, for my um networkers. If I have somebody well like, say, I have my top customer that I'm sitting with and they're looking for a divorce attorney, unfortunately, then I will want to be extremely confident in putting cause. I am giving my, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Advice.
Speaker 2:Right. So that's kind of the people that we try to surround ourselves with in our networking group. Um, it's been really great.
Speaker 1:So you're in a networking group, right. There's a lot of different networking groups, like BNI, but you're in a different one, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm in several. I've been networking professionally for about nine years. I did start my own networking group in Sanford Springvale about a year and a half ago. To this point it's called TBD Connections. It's part of a greater group of connection groups. They're all called.
Speaker 2:TBD we have chapters from Brunswick all the way to actually Florida. We have a couple of chapters over there, but we are the newest chapter and you know, I was the vice president of the local Kennebunk chapter for about five years until I thought you know like we, there seemed to be a really large need for that networking space down. You know, like the Sanford Springville, all those areas down there just didn't really have any Waterboro. So I was like why don't just start one? So we put a couple I mean it was like grassroots, as you know putting up a post in the local community board on Facebook and saying like we're going to try to start a networking group. We'll be here at nine o'clock on this day board on Facebook and saying like we're going to try to start a networking group. We'll be here at nine o'clock on this day and to our surprise and excitement, we had 17 people walk through the door that day.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. For a first day, that's enough.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's grown from them and it's just been. I mean, the need is huge.
Speaker 1:So when? What is that format? So that's a more formal networking group, right? What does that look like on a weekly or monthly basis? What is it? How do you guys weight that work?
Speaker 2:So this particular group meets weekly and then annually. We have a large social event which all the other chapters come to. We just had ours a couple weeks ago actually, for the Sanford chapter. We got some great networking in and we actually raised over $600 for a local nonprofit which is really exciting Nice.
Speaker 1:So is there a cadence that goes along with that? I think you said you meet weekly, right? So what does that weekly meeting look like? And I think that's a big investment. For a lot of people is a weekly thing. But explain how it all works.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's kind of what we hear a lot is you know it's. You know I don't have the time hear a lot is you know it's, you know I don't have the time, or I did go and I didn't get anything out of it. But really networking is extremely largely like you get out what you put in, and our particular networking group doesn't have any attendance requirements. There are some that you know you have to. You have to go there every week and if you miss a week you have to find a substitute. We don't have those policies in place. Although those are great policies, we kind of leave it up to exactly that. So the more you put in, the more you get out, and that's on you. So we have people that show up, you know, once every six months and they probably get a deal from us once every six months. We have people that come once a week and they yield really great results from that.
Speaker 2:But really what that looks like is, you know, during those weekly meetings you only have 45 seconds to talk about yourself and what you do, and like I don't think any of us can really describe fully what we do in 45 seconds. We all have our great elevator pitches, but it's almost like a second full-time job. So you need to take the time. What we've found is and have those one-on-ones with people and have those ongoing communications. So you have your weekly meeting where you get in the room and you meet people, but then the real networking I always say the most important part of the networking group is the 15 minutes before the meeting and the 15 minutes after the meeting, because that's when you get to sit down and people talk about your day, show them who you are as a person and really really build that trust. So you're not just, you know, the seventh mortgage loan officer sitting at the table and maybe they'll pick your card and maybe they won't.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, you know, I think so. One of those things about the form, formal networking groups. You know, how do you engage with the folks that aren't necessarily in your traditional network, right? So I mean, if you have this mosquito and tick guy right, who largely is maybe dealing with more consumer-based clients not necessarily business clients who might be your ideal client, how do you get leads to them and from them? How have you found that working?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I mean we've like as a group, in the past year we've passed over 150 referrals to one another and our industries are so widely separated, but we found great success in things as simple as I mentioned earlier, like just those community boards on Facebook. You know, if you see people that are, you know, looking for someone to come spray my lawn, you know you have eight of us sitting here and saying like this guy is the best, he's wonderful, he's great. I've known him for a year. That's kind of how we've been. So that's a really it's.
Speaker 1:That's a totally interesting way of looking at it, because I would definitely say that that happens all the time, right? I mean, especially in this day and age, we're all in these facebook groups where somebody's looking for somebody to do something right and of course there's a million recommendations and sometimes there's some non-recommendations and things like that. Uh, but I never really thought about the networking in terms of the power of you know, gosh, if 10 people recommend the same person, that's probably going to drive that cold. I mean, I consider that a cold lead, I guess, but that's going to drive that cold lead to that provider, right? It's kind of an interesting way of thinking about networking.
Speaker 1:It might not be someone that's already in your network. It's totally blind, right, which I guess you know. You said earlier that you want to be, you know, the person that you'd refer your best client to, right? And so I, when we make referrals in our with our client base, I know there's people that I just know are going to work better with some people than not, right? So that whole concept kind of scares me, because now I'm referring clients blind to somebody and, gosh, maybe that's a client that they're never going to want, right. Yes, you don't know that. That's which is a little scary to me, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you just have to have. I mean, what we do is we just have a great amount of faith in the people that we network with. So these are people that you know I would never go to a networking group and the very first time someone comes in and be like great I'm that they get out what they put in. And you know, I meet them week after week after week after week and I get to the point where I would feel, where I do feel comfortable saying like I think that you are a great property manager in the area.
Speaker 1:Sure, yeah, yeah, interesting. What are some of the you know do's and don'ts that you've found in this kind of formal networking relationship? I mean, what are the things that have worked really well and the things that have gosh really tanked really bad?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean in the beginning I found exactly to my point earlier. If you show up and you give you 45 seconds and you leave like that's not networking, and you sit there and you're that person and we hear it all the time Like, oh, I went to six meetings I didn't get anything out of it, it's like, yes, you and six other you know what I mean realtors did, and none of them got anything out of it, because, except for the one they took the time to meet everybody to talk about themselves. That's kind of the main difference. But as far as the do's and don'ts, I got a really good piece of advice when I first started networking.
Speaker 2:I was lucky enough to have some amazing mentors and one of them said the worst thing you could do is be an inch deep and a mile wide. So if you're that person that just I mean you're at every after hours on your every networking group, you're everywhere under the sun and you're just like here's my card, here's my card, here's my card. Um, you have, you know, you can have all these connections, but they're not meaningful, they're an inch deep. You know what I mean. So it's better to have a small group of five, six people that you've really really built that connection with. That you email on a weekly basis, that you go to lunch with once a month, that you really that you are 100% confident that every time they come across an opportunity, it's coming your way.
Speaker 1:That's interesting. So I you know that was one of the questions I was going to ask is how do you manage? Okay, so you have your formal networking group, but how are you managing your you know, the informal things, the after hours, the other? I mean, this week is one of those weeks I literally have tonight, tomorrow night, wednesday night I have, you know stuff every night fundraiser, you know, networking event. I don't even remember what's happening Wednesday, but I have something Wednesday night which is business related and I think. So how are you managing those kinds of connections in the more informal, not your formal, networking group?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, the best advice that I've received and I've given to people is the networking should be one of your top priorities each day, because if you're doing it right, that hour that you're spending from five to 6 PM, which no one really wants to do, but if you make the most out of that hour, it's going to pay back like the same amount as if you sat in your office and did 10 days of work.
Speaker 2:Because you have so many more people that you're connecting with, You're not going to have that many people walk through the door of your business. So I always just, you know, it's on my calendar, it's not a priority. I'm going to be there, unless there's some catastrophic reason that I can't. And then just, yeah, making the time for it and, when you're there, being fully present. So you know you, you go to some networking groups and there's people that'll come for five minutes and there's people that'll you know what I mean Like go and stay at the bar for the most of the time, but it's really going in there committing to yourself. I'm going to have, you know, three really, really deep conversations with people about getting to know what they do leave with their card, leave with a follow-up meeting and just really making it a priority.
Speaker 1:So I consider myself an extroverted person and a pretty connected person in the community. But even when I go to after hours I feel like I gravitate to the same people, right, the same group, the people I know already, the whatever. But what have you found or have you found that helps you kind of reach out to cold, to people at those events? Right? Have you done anything? You know, what do you do to psych yourself up for that, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I do. I try to do and I've trained a lot of people in networking as well and I always encourage people to do their due diligence. So if you're invited to a networking group, what I do is I'll go on. You know, if you get like an Outlook invite and there's like the people that are going, I'll take the time to pick three and research them and find them at the meeting and commit to myself that I'm going to go introduce myself to this person. I'll try to ask people that know them if they can give me a warm introduction. Same thing if you get like the Facebook event invite you know see who's going and kind of just pick three people you want to meet.
Speaker 1:That's actually really good advice, I think you know, just as you're preparing for a prospect I think that's the same kind of thing, right, just preparing to meet a new networking partner. That's kind of a neat, neat thought. So what, you know? What if things aren't working right? How do you? How do you rejigger yourself If you know you? You talked about a lot of things good, set good goals, you know, challenge yourself, do your research. But what if things aren't, just just aren't working right? Gosh, I'm talking to people that I really want to be in front of and it's not working right. No, I'm not getting any business out of it, or vice versa, I'm not able to find anything to send to them, right? What do you think about that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, there's a catchphrase in networking that says don't go to these groups trying to like pin the tail on the donkey. So you need to be, yes, have your goals, but also like be flexible and if things opportunity to step back and I think what a lot of people fall into is like networking is not working for me, it's just not for me and that's not true, it's kind of that you need to take the step back and reevaluate, like what you're doing. And in that time I mean that's happened to me in my first networking group I went to. I was 23 years old and I walked in and I had no idea what I was doing. But a really good thing is to find the people in the room that seem really well-connected and seem confident and be open and honest enough to go up to them and be like I need your advice. Could we schedule a meeting and you kind of tell me your tips of the trade? And I've never, ever, ever met someone that's like no those are my secrets.
Speaker 2:Really good networkers love sharing tips on really good networking.
Speaker 1:I think that's a good point, even within your own industry. For the most part, I think we're very fortunate where we are, most people are willing to, to share and, and you know, give their advice and teach. I think that's really. I mean I truly believe that a rising tide floats all boats. I mean, I think, as the community is doing better, I'm doing better, my business is doing better, my employees doing better, everything's.
Speaker 1:You know about that and I think you know, if we have peers, I have competitors, right. I mean we're competitors to some extent, right. I'm not afraid of that, right, in essence, I think you know for us it's great that we are close because if the shit hits the fan, you know maybe you'll be there to help me, right, or I'll be there to help you, or something you know that's. I mean all of our competitors locally. We know I've got them in my cell phone. I could text them, you know, at nine o'clock at night saying, god, I really need help with this Right, and I think that's the same thing you know in your industry, there are 15 banks in a one mile stretch and I'm sure you know all the branch managers, right, and you know, and it's the same thing it's.
Speaker 1:It's being there to help each other and support each other and maybe, just maybe, right. This bank may not be the right, you know, this client may not be right for this bank and they may say gosh, we're going to send this to Ashley because I know she can handle it right.
Speaker 2:That happens.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. That happens all the time. You know I try not to send those nasty clients to.
Speaker 2:Mike.
Speaker 1:I don't want to recommend people, if you know, if I know, the client's not going to be right fit for them. But I think that's really important, like you said, is people usually will take some time to say, hey, what's out there and how can you help me? And I think most people are willing to do that. So that kind of goes on to the next thing. What about the one-on-ones? How do you get someone to say, hey, listen, you've gone up to them in networking event or whatever. Can I get coffee? What are you looking to usually get out of those? What are you looking to usually get out of those? What are you you're looking to provide?
Speaker 2:in those. I guess, yeah, honestly in the, in the advice I've given others as well, is in the first meeting I try to not talk business out. My goal is to leave and them literally knowing, like, where I work and what I do, but that's about it as far as I'm not sitting there, being like we have the best rates and you could do this and we can. You know I mean we. My goal is for them to get to know me, because there are a hundred other bankers out there that are having these same meetings with them, that are sitting in product.
Speaker 2:You know any dumping on them, whereas if you take the hour and you find commonalities like, oh, I love to ski, I have two kids in the school district I have, you know what I mean, I love my cat, like all those sorts of things I feel like is that's when the true connections start to build. And to your earlier point of how do you blindly recommend someone, those are really great things to build off of too. So if I run into someone that like and their personality just reminds me, oh, they would work so well with Lisa, you know what I mean. Lisa also has a house in the mountain. They have so much in common, so it's really taking that hour. I feel like to try to share more about you and, more importantly, much more importantly, like them. So always let them lead the conversation. Tell me about yourself, tell me about your family, like, what got you into this industry? Where are your passions? That's usually how the one-to-ones look like.
Speaker 1:So once you get your first one on one-to-one right, you talked about setting goals for yourself in networking events, but do you kind of set goals for each other in subsequent meetings? I mean, gosh, so we're going to take that out of our big group and maybe we're going to meet once a quarter. Can we say hey, listen, I want to find a person a month to send to you. I want you to spend. Does that ever happen?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, there's definitely. There's a lot of people that will end on end one-to-ones with like a solid like I. I had one banker that was in networking and that was like his thing. He, like, at the end every time was like I have committed that I'm going to send him three deals and he did it because he, he had those goals for himself and that worked really, really well for them. Everybody does.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean their commitments in a different way, like my main main thing is I just try to to stay relevant in their world. So if you go and you have this really, really great one-to-one and then that's it for the next year, like that's like you wasted all that time and you wasted their time Um, it's really committing to looking out for opportunities for them. It's keeping that communication open. When you have you know what I mean Like like a great rate or something that popped up or you know a special through payroll, it's communicating that with them and really just staying in the loop on their lives. So, you know, follow their LinkedIn If they get a promotion, like, write them a card, congratulate them, bring them out to lunch, just keep that, those connections, going, just like you would a friend.
Speaker 1:Sure, and certainly, again, you kind of get out of it. What you put into it, right, and that's I think that's a real thing is gosh, don't just leave that meeting and not do anything. Right, follow up. I mean, I had coffee with someone Friday morning and you know my wheels are turning about. Okay, how do I stay engaged with him? He's a great, great person to know, very well connected, maybe not necessarily going to send me some business, but I think you're right.
Speaker 1:Okay, you know he was in main biz a few weeks ago and that's how I kind of got connected and, hey, congratulations on your award. Blah, blah, I'd love to get together with you and that's kind of spurred coffee and who knows from there. Right, but I think that's on me to try to figure out where to where to next. So, um, that's good advice for sure. So you are in a very saturated industry, right? Yeah, how do you, you know, set yourself apart from all of the other bankers out there that are literally rate shopping, right? I mean, they're, you know, gosh, we have a mortgage promotion, we have a HELOC promotion or whatever. You know, how are you setting yourself apart with your networking partners?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we have a community that's just absolutely chock full of talent, especially in the financial world. There's so many, just I mean we have, we have. I mean we have. We have local banks, we have large banks, we just there's. There's an immense amount of talent in this industry.
Speaker 2:And, to your earlier point, I welcome the competition in the way that they are. In a lot of the cases, my top referral sources I look out for, like you had mentioned, like if there's a new branch manager at a local bank, I'm going to lunch with them that week. Um, just kind of keep those like lines of communication open and the way that you, you know you complement each other so you don't want like, oh, me versus them. It's kind of like how can we cohesively you know what I mean make sure that everybody's needs are met? Um, I think one thing that does make people stand out is trustworthiness, responsiveness, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:And then like punctuality, so if I'm at a networking group and someone comes in 15 minutes late and they haven't been there for three weeks and that might not be my first choice of someone to send to, opposed to the person that came 15 minutes early and took the time to talk to me and shared a little about their lives with me. So I think standing out is just doing those things that make you, as I mentioned earlier, the person that they feel the most comfortable sending their top customer to and not worrying about it a bit.
Speaker 1:That's really good. What's the one thing that you think people listening today should take away in terms of networking? If you do nothing else, what's the one thing?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean it's the best free advertisement out there and I've said it a million times you get out what you put in and if it's something that people have wanted to try in the past, I say, just do it. Like I said, my first networking group I didn't even get invited to, I just showed up and I had no idea what I was doing and I was welcomed so big with open arms and it was so wonderful and honestly, I'm sure you can say the same. But I feel like the people that I've met through my business networking have become like some of the closest people in my life, which is which is crazy. I mean they've, they've grown into, be my professional references. They are the first people to you know what I mean Celebrate a promotion or like, uh, when I had my second child, like they threw me a baby shower, like it was just they really do become like, really really close in so many ways and it's just a whole world of opportunities and I can't recommend it enough.
Speaker 1:So if folks want to get in touch with you to learn how to become a master networker, just like you are, what's the best way to get in touch with you?
Speaker 2:Email or yeah, absolutely, I mean, I'm always. I have email text. We have our meetings, our weekly meetings. There's a weekly meeting. There's the TBD Connections website where you can see all of the chapters' meetings. Ours is Wednesday mornings at 9. Kenny Bunk's is Tuesday mornings at 8.30. And there's chapters everywhere in between. You can stop by the bank, you can. Really I'm always around.
Speaker 1:Sounds great, well, wonderful, well. Sounds great, well, wonderful, well. Thanks everyone for listening this week. Again, don't forget like, follow, share rate review everywhere all the time, multiple times if you can, and otherwise we will see you all next week. Thanks very much. Thanks for listening to this week's episode of Small Business, big World. This podcast is a production of Paper Trails. We are a payroll and HR company based in Kennebunk, maine, and we serve small across New England and the country. If you found this podcast helpful, don't forget to follow us at at Paper Trails Payroll across all social media platforms and check us out at papertrailscom for more information. As a reminder, the views, opinions and thoughts expressed are the hosts and guests alone. The material presented in this podcast is for general information purposes only and should not be considered legal or financial advice. By inviting this guest to our podcast Paper,
