Networking: How To Get The Most Out of Networking Events

With the Franchise Leadership and Development Conference right around the corner (September 23-25 at the Drake Hotel in Chicago), I wanted to go over a few networking opportunity tips that I have come to learn over my years attending events like these.

TACKLE OTHER PEOPLE’S MISTAKES
It never ceases to amaze, how many times I meet someone at a networking event and they do not have a business card with them. Make your business card like your AMEX card: “DON’T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT IT!”

Don’t rely on your memory. When you meet someone at an event and exchange cards, make notes on the back of their card as a memory trigger for reference. If you work your way through a networking event correctly, you should have collected far more cards than the average person’s memory can account for, without a reference point.

EXCHANGE OF BUSINESS CARDS
Meet and swap cards with as many people as possible and save your more in-depth conversations for a follow-up call or meeting. Taking too deep a dive at the event will limit your opportunity to meet more potentially interesting and valuable contacts.

STUDY YOUR APPROACH CAREFULLY
Approach the same level of interest and sincerity as you would exhibit in a meeting with a new or existing client, but remember the timeline is more like a lightning round than that of a longer, fact-finding or consultative session.

Also, approach networking opportunities with interest in learning just enough to make you want to know more; conversely, sharing just enough to make someone meeting you want to learn more as well.

Finally for preparation, here’s the trick I use: keep your business cards in your left pocket, and those that you collect in your right. You NEVER want to give someone a card that has notes on it—yours or someone else’s.

I will execute these simple, yet effective, strategies at the upcoming Franchise Update Leadership and Development Conference, one of my favorite events for networking within the franchising community. While many in attendance will be those that I already know well or have met at past franchise events, I will also meet dozens of franchising industry professionals for the very first time. In the almost 10 years that I have been attending this event, great things have always resulted from the networking that I did during the conference.

I have continued to come back for this conference annually because it is laser targeted and specific in its content. It is big enough to attract high quality industry leaders, speakers and keynotes, yet small enough to still feel intimate. One can actually look for and find just about anyone that they may want to circle back to and have a deeper conversation and not have to compromise “official” networking time to do it.

Franchise Update Story Captures Urban Franchise Development

In the first Franchise Update issue of 2009, I had the honor of being included in Eddy Goldberg’s story: The New ROI: Return on Inclusion, Franchisors Seek Green Pastures in Urban Concrete. In addition to my quotes throughout the article, http://www.franchise-update.com/, I wanted to share with you a few important passages.

Stan Friedman has for the past two years, chairedf the IFA’s MinorityFran program, launched in February 2006 as part of the Diversity Institute’s efforts to 1) build awareness of franchising within minority communities and 2) increase the number of minority franchisees, franchisors, suppliers, and employees.

“Franchisors are missing the boat if they don’t look at those under-served markets as golden opportunities to create revenues for their business, and at the same time serve the community. There’s a compelling case to be made for coming back to inner cities and to under-served consumers,” says Friedman, who helped lead the Urban Expansion Initiative for Blimpie International in 1998 as vice president of global development.

“There still will be challenges, but real estate is less expensive, the pool of people for jobs greater, and federal wage and tax credits and incentives are available,” says Friedman. “All of the sudden your unit economics and startup costs are much better before you even open the door, compared with suburbia.”

Too many times Murphy’s Law intervenes when franchisees are trying to get new locations opened. Be it a permitting problem, a construction delay or the late delivery of some vital piece of equipment, it seems that there’s always something pushing the projected opening date back. Depending on the timelines and financial strength of the franchisee, this can really cause some painful crimps in one’s style and in many cases put the franchisee under water. A much happier pre-opening scenario might look like this: A franchisee’s new unit is under construction within the boundaries of a Federal Empowerment Zone or Renewal Community. He is at the point where he has begun hiring and because most everyone that will work at his store also lives in the neighborhood, the creation of these local jobs makes him eligible for a personal tax credit of up to $3,000 per year, for each qualifying employee he has hired. With 10-12 locals on his payroll, he could be looking at as much as $36,000 in future tax credits.

“Why aren’t franchisors city bound?” Goldberg writes, “Beyond the downside risks most often cited by reluctant franchisors – security and staffing issues – Friedman says, ‘Maybe it’s just something franchisors haven’t spent enough time thinking through.’”

Many franchisors have not even thought about this process because in many cases, it’s too far outside their box. Take this to the bank… no more can franchisors be reactive in their approach to development and depend on yesteryear’s methods of recruiting new blood to their brands. There are some very viable opportunities for inner city development that can put new faces on old neighborhoods, create jobs that are both wanted and needed and serve consumer needs without their need to travel down the line on the bus to find the services they wished were available to them, a bit closer to home.

In terms of social good, says Friedman, franchising in under-served urban markets 1) will change the landscapes of central cities; 2) provide residents with access to needed goods and services; 3) provide residents with access to needed goods and services; 3) create entrepreneurs in the community; and 4) create jobs for people who live there.

“If you’re serious about your commitment, there are resources available through the IFA to help you plot your course and bring your brand into markets that are under-served, and reach out not only to consumers but to potential franchisees as well,” says Friedman. In the past, he says, it might have been more difficult for a franchisor to make a go of it in a diverse inner city market on their own.

Tax credits and incentives should certainly be considered when considering site selection in the inner city. If a proactive approach to candidate selection makes more sense than just reactively speaking to anyone that wants to talk with you, so does the proactive approach to site selection, as well.

MinorityFran, says Friedman, seeks “to create the playbook and glean the best practices” of franchisors succeeding in expanding into cities, and share that intellectual capital with those who want to try it. That involves relationships with many groups nationwide, including SCORE, local banks, La Raza, the National Urban League, and what he calls “an aggressive outreach initiative” through the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

RetroTax is a proud supporter of the IFA MinorityFran initiative and I am proud to be the Immediate Past Chairman of the IFA Minorities in Franchising Committee and First Vice Chair and a founding member of IFA’s Diversity Institute.

Finally, in the article I talked about National Diversity Solutions (NDS), a Lexington, Ky., based company that works with franchisors and large multi-unit franchisees to help them rework the fabric of their supplier channel to reduce costs and introduce diversity. The NDS mission is a no-brainer. Just as MinorityFran has aspired to make the business case for diversity and inclusion, such is so with NDS as well. Their mission is to simplify supply chain diversification and economic inclusion while reducing costs, increasing service levels and promoting a company's commitment throughout the minority community.

At RetroTax we are in the business of identifying and administering wage-based tax credits for businesses that either don’t even know that these economic incentives exist, or who don’t have the time and resources to administer them correctly, even if they did. Additionally, we are looking for franchise affiliations in each of the markets where such credits and incentives exist. What could be better than finding a minority franchisee to service local businesses in his/her local community and build a business serving neighboring businesses, within the community.

For Further Education, Franchisors Should Follow the Media

Throughout my career in franchising, I have become a dedicated news junkie, especially when it comes to news that pertains to franchising. In many ways, this has contributed to my continuing education. By reading and absorbing news, I have been able to generate new ideas for conducting better business as well as assisting with the development of better methods and best practices for growing the concepts I have represented.

Both newbies and established franchisors should never turn their heads away from the opportunity to absorb more education. For franchising information, I read several online resources through LinkedIn, as well as other Web-based industry standards like Franchise Times, IFA Smart Brief, Franchising.com and Bison. Additionally, for news AND commentary, I check in pretty frequently with sites like Franchise Chat and Blue Mau Mau.

Personal media outlets also get my mind rolling. My all-time, overall favorite media portal has for years been The Drudge Report. Even though Matt Drudge has become more mainstream in more recent years, he is still cutting edge in terms of breaking news “long” before most mainstream outlets even get a sniff of the stories he sheds light on.

My wake-up call in the morning is syndicated radio bad boy, Don Imus. (IMUS in the Morning…check for local station listings at WABC Radio. I am mostly a talk-radio and TV junkie with an ear toward Boortz, Hannity, Limbaugh, O’Reilly, and Dr. Bill Bennett and of course, Imus. From the other side of the aisle, I tune in regularly to Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann and even Rachel Maddow, for the other side of the coin. For some lighter entertainment, I’ll catch occasional podcasts of George Noory’s Coast-to-Coast AM to hear what the “conspiracy theorists” are espousing as the “plot of the day.” Don’t just listen to what you agree with. You will learn a good bit more by listening to ALL points of view, not just the one that you may embrace.

My point in presenting you with my daily media routine is to encourage you to follow the media. Become ingrained in it, as the media can get your creative mind flowing with ideas for growing your franchise. For new franchisors, the IFA Smart Brief and Insider, Franchising.com, and Franchise Chat are great tools for daily chatter. For more in-depth resource news and tools, look at Franchise Times, Franchising World and Franchise Update. All three are must reads for me.