A few weeks ago I met with a local guy that is wanting to build up a business similar to ours, particularly on the WordPress development side of things. I was happy to talk to him, and I think he’ll be quite successful as he begins to build his business.
I also thought about the meeting in terms of ROI. I see people all the time trying to measure the ROI of their social efforts, which can be nearly impossible for a small business. If you’re a huge brand, there is enough data that you can begin to work out the numbers. For small businesses, one transaction can quickly skew the numbers (see the $100,000/hour receptionist or the $700 tweet). For an individual meeting it’s even more difficult to calculate, but let’s see what it looks like.
The Loss
On first glance, it probably seemed like a bad move on my part. Giving away an hour of my time to help someone that will likely become my competition? Of course, I recently pointed out that I don’t view our competition as the enemy. In fact, I see it as quite the opposite — we can all learn a lot from each other. With that out out of the way, what’s the other side?
The Return
There are a lot of great things that could potentially come out of a meeting like that, such as:
- We’ll be seen as somewhat of an authority in his eyes, and somewhere to turn to if he has a technical problem.
- He’s likely to attend our monthly Meetup, where we can grow our relationship further.
- Assuming he finds it useful, he may invite others to future Meetups.
- He may also encourage others to follow our blog or social sites.
- If he finds a potential client that has a huge project, he may outsource parts of it to us.
You never know where one relationship might lead. I met a guy a few years ago and I was going to do some work on his site, but it never panned out. However, he’s since referred us to other people he knows and it’s led to well over $100,000 in business in the past few years.
Whatever business you’re in, get out there and meet others in your industry. You’ll learn a lot, and you never know what business might bloom from that relationship.
About Mickey Mellen
Mickey is GreenMellen's token “tech guy” and his skills are greatly valued on the GreenMellen team. With over 9 years of WordPress experience and a passion for helping others, you will often find Mickey leading a North Atlanta-based MeetUp, All Things WordPress. He is also highly involved in social media and knows the ins and outs of everything from Facebook to Google+. There’s no denying Mickey’s brain is a good one to pick!
- Google+ |
- More Posts (68)
