Surviving the economic downturn may be a simple case of good neighbourliness for small and medium businesses.
BNI New Zealand - a business referral networking group which has more than 2200 SME member companies nationwide - is advising members to start looking for customers in their own backyardby 'networking the neighbourhood'.
New Zealand Director Graham Southwell says common marketing wisdom is that people do more business with people they like and those who are within convenient reach.
"By keeping your business development local you're not only more likely to convert new business, you also reduce the cost of travel, time and telephone."
He said BNI was planning to organise a local 'meet the neighbours' function in one area of Auckland as a trial to try and get business neighbours talking to each other.
"There's no reason why SME's can't do this kind of thing in their own areas too; perhaps even a 'street barbeque for the neighbours'. Your business neighbours want the same thing as you - more business and lower costs, so why not facilitate that desire with some traditional networking?"
Having recently started its 100th chapter, BNI New Zealand is the country's biggest referral networking organisation. Members meet weekly in their local neighbourhood chapters (from the Bay of Islands to Invercargill) where they engage in a supportive programme of learning about each other's businesses and goals and to pass qualified business referrals to each other.
"In an average chapter of 22 business owners - only one business category per chapter - they can pass anything from 10 to 35 qualified referrals in one morning," says Graham.
