6 Steps to Leverage Online Events to Start and Grow Your Business

What empowers an aspiring entrepreneur to become a leader? Experience, understanding and knowledge of business foundations and practices are essential. Even so, there's no way to overstate the impact an entrepreneur's network of like-minded peers, mentors and customers can have on the big picture and the small details, too.

No surprise, then, that making yourself available and visible is one of the best ways to connect with leaders. You can leverage your time at conferences and networking events, or you can reach out directly via email, messaging apps and a personal phone call. 

But how do you go from striking up a conversation to building a relationship without wasting anyone’s time -- including your own? Over a recent two-week span, I organized an online event that enabled me to connect with more than 100 business leaders and draw nearly 6,000 participants. 

Never hosted an online event? No problem. These strategies can help you across a variety of business-need categories:

• If you're beginning your entrepreneurial journey, you might seek mentorship, feedback or validation to help "presell" an idea.
• If you're working to take your company to higher level, you may need promotional partnerships, new clients or publicity.

You can follow a few key steps to launch a successful experience around your idea, with little to no budget.

1. Define a topic.
Your event's topic should be relevant to your industry, category or interest group. That's the no-brainer. A carefully designed event will build lasting relationships with leaders in your space. It also can help grow an audience of people who can provide feedback on your ideas, buy your products and refer you to other leads.

The potential is huge, so it's crucial to make sure the subject will resonate with your target participants. Because my focus is on providing entrepreneurs with resources to help them bootstrap their ventures, I launched the Bootstrapping Summit.

First, though, I needed to learn whether such an event would find its mark. I floated the idea by emailing a sample group of subscribers from my larger newsletter list and asking for their feedback.  If you don’t have a newsletter or customer base, post your idea in online communities and groups. This is also a great way to build a group of ambassadors who can help you promote the event when it’s live.

2. List 100 potential speakers.
Once you define the topic, your search for speakers becomes straightforward. Google search and tools such as Buzzsumo and SparkToro can help you create a list of top influencers within a few hours. Speed up the process even more by identifying the Top 5 podcasts in your industry, then use keywords in the search box to narrow the list of guests. Anyone who's been invited to the best podcasts should be regarded as a credible voice in your market.

3. Reach out for an interview.
Experts like to be treated like experts. For the Bootstrapping Summit, I made my pitch to 250 successful entrepreneurs, and 163 of them answered. I aimed for 100 speakers, but your goal might be much different. 

Timing and relevance are two key factors to influencers’ willingness to respond and be part of any event. If you scoured top podcasts to generate your list of potential speakers, you can review the most recent interviews and reach out with a note about the episode. Demonstrate your genuine interest by including a few follow-up questions that expand on the previous segment and preview the expertise you hope they'll share at your event. You'll elicit far more responses from recent podcast interviewees than those whose episodes published a year ago.

Podcasts aren't your only channel for free resources. You can search for recent articles, YouTube videos or speaking engagements and follow the same model. To locate email addresses, consider a tool such as Voila Norbert.

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4. Ask them to promote the event.
Getting industry leaders to dedicate 30 or 45 minutes for your online event is only one part of the success equation. The most effective way to spread awareness and drive registrations is to provide each of your experts with a compelling reason to become your advocate.  

There's no one-approach-fits-all answer to convince influencers to promote your event to their audiences. There are some best practices, however. First, inquire about their needs and short-term objectives. Spend some time thinking about their goals and then propose meaningful ways you could help. Offer them something of value.  

As I prepared for the Bootstrapping Summit, I asked one of these simple questions: "What's your short-term goal?" I learned some speakers were looking for ambassadors to help market their own upcoming launches, so I proposed to be one. Other speakers were looking for referrals, so I made sure I connected them with the right people. I discovered that most speakers were happy to share "just because" -- and because being part of a closed group of experts brings big branding value.

5. Recruit promotional partners.
Before pitching my event to potential partner companies such as RightMessage, ClickMeter, Rebrandly, Zenkit, Bubble and FreeeUp, I was careful to recruit enough known speakers to grab their attention. I asked each promo partner to email the company's membership list about the event. My 14 partners brought me nearly 2,000 additional participants I likely wouldn't have reached otherwise. 

6. Be different.
To differentiate your event, you might prepare and share supplemental material, create extra lessons, link to discounts from promotional partner companies or offer an hour of your time to a few winners randomly selected from the participant group. 

I set apart my Bootstrapping Summit by organizing six, one-hour, live Q&A sessions with selected speakers. Participants had the chance to ask questions in real time -- getting valuable input from leaders who typically charge $500 an hour. 

Entrepreneurs often spend too much time trying to solve the wrong problem. Learning from the best while building longlasting relationships is the best way to shortcut your path to success and cultivate a community of people to share feedback and invest in your products and services. 




Source: https://www.entrepreneur.com
Image credit: Westend61 | Getty Images


ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business organization focused on providing our members and guests with an extraordinary networking experience, bringing business professionals together for the sole purpose of generating new relationships and developing new business opportunities. Not a member, learn how you can become a member and join this awesome group of professionals to connect and grow your business.

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[VIDEO] 3 Simple Things You Can Do to Grow Your Business

After talking to hundreds of entrepreneurs and business owners, like financial advisors, real estate agents, mortgage brokers, business coaches, startup founders and more, Entrepreneur Network partner Greg Rollet has identified three simple things you can do to get more clients.

Now, these three things are not an exhaustive list, and there are a million different ways you can achieve them. But, they are at least a starting point you can use to develop your business and get more clients. For example, Rollett advises that you need to have a plan for your media.

This can take form in different ways. You might provide editorial content, meant to entertain readers and grow your audience. Or, you could create advertising, which would hopefully drive that audience toward an action -- particularly making a purchase or investing in you.

But, that's just one decision. You also need to decide on whether you want to make written media, photos or videos. Do you want it to be a digital media or something physical? Should it be long or short and what are your goals for the project?

This isn't about a one-size-fits-all solution -- each business will have different media needs. But, media is vital if you want to grow your business, because in the end, it's just a medium you can use for your message.

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Source: https://www.entrepreneur.com


ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business organization focused on providing our members and guests with an extraordinary networking experience, bringing business professionals together for the sole purpose of generating new relationships and developing new business opportunities. Not a member, learn how you can become a member and join this awesome group of professionals to connect and grow your business.

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How to Leverage the 6 Principles of Persuasion in Your Email Marketing

Do you know how to persuade? It’s a critical skill for an email marketer. Perhaps the most critical.

“You’ve created your campaign and attended to all the details of identifying your audience, created your offer, and toiled for hours and hours, honing copywriting and design,” writes Gary Hennerberg at Target Marketing. “But in the end, the tipping point for your success likely stems from the degree to which you emotionally persuade an individual to take action.”

In his groundbreaking 1984 book, “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion,” Dr. Robert Cialdini identified what he termed “The Six Principles of Persuasion”: reciprocity, commitment/consistency, social proof, authority, liking and scarcity. He was onto something important: his book has sold more than three million copies and been translated into 30 languages.

If you haven’t been putting Cialdini’s principles to work in your email marketing, now is a good time to start. Read on to learn how you can leverage them in your campaigns.

Reciprocity

“Reciprocity is the obligation to give once you receive,” writes Mark Brown at Emailaudience,

Brown illustrates the power of reciprocity by citing a study linking mints that accompanied diners’ checks with higher tips. “The waiters in the experiments enjoyed double the tip amount for one mint (3%), quadruple the amount for two mints (14%) and went as high as 23% when the waiter provided extra gifts unexpectedly,” he writes.

The bottom line: “In every email that asks users to take an action – whether it be clicking on a link, buying a product or sharing information – you should offer a small gift or offering. These gifts can be downloads, discounts or even entertaining videos, however, they should be seen as having some kind of inherent value in order to be effective.”

Commitment/Consistency

This principle posits that once people make a commitment, they behave in a manner consistent with that commitment.

Asking recipients to sign-up to receive free content is an example of gaining commitment. Once they do that, they are very likely to take the subsequent steps needed to obtain your offer.

“You’re persuading people to commit to your content, so that they start behaving in alignment with their choice of committing to you,” writes Neil Patel. “The returns garnered by the commitment and consistency principle could be something as subtle as liking and sharing your content on social media or something as large as following your CTAs.”

Social proof

Social proof drives conformity by compelling people to behave in alignment with the actions of others. Social proof gets results. It’s why email marketers use testimonials, endorsements, awards, product reviews, press coverage, and other forms of validation in their messages.

“Put simply, people trust people, not ads or self-promotion,” writes Daniel Kohn on the Kissmetrics blog. “We want to see or hear or read about others using, enjoying, and succeeding with a product or service before committing to it ourselves.”

Authority

“The principle of authority says most of us realize we can’t be experts at everything,” write Jacob McMillen at The Daily Egg. “Our best bet is to rely on the testimony of experts. Accordingly, we allow experts and those considered the ‘authority’ on any given topic to influence us.

“You can put the principle of authority to work in email marketing by citing professionals to back up any claims you make, by pointing to research conducted on your product or service by prestigious organizations and by showcasing awards and other recognition your company has earned.

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Liking

“It’s hard to say ‘no’ to someone we like or consider a friend, because we want to make a good impression and preserve the friendship,” writes Alexis Rodrigo at Vero. When it comes to leveraging this principle in email marketing, “The key is to get your subscribers to like you in the first place,” Rodrigo advises.

“To start, your emails should sound human. Write conversationally – think business conversation, not street talk – avoiding jargon and legalese.”More tips: “Show the human side to your company or organization. Let subscribers know who’s writing to them, and show an agreeable photo of the author. Get the people who make up your business to share who they are through personal anecdotes or stories that relate to the rest of your email.”

Scarcity

“The feeling of being in competition for scarce resources has powerfully motivating properties,” Cialdini wrote.“Scarcity triggers an emotion response because we find it hard to resist wanting things that are scarce,” writes Sarah Jamieson at Persuasionworks. “Scarcity also increases desire.If we know we can’t have something, we want it even more.”

Jamieson suggests email marketers leverage the persuasive power of scarcity by stressing that quantities are limited, that the product is only available to members of an “exclusive” group, or that a deadline is looming.



Source: https://www.business2community.com/



ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business organization focused on providing our members and guests with an extraordinary networking experience, bringing business professionals together for the sole purpose of generating new relationships and developing new business opportunities. Not a member, learn how you can become a member and join this awesome group of professionals to connect and grow your business.

Stay Connected with WNFP!

Perfectionism Can Stunt Business Growth: 5 Ways To 'Let It Go' And Grow

Have you noticed how some people seem to be proud to say that they are a perfectionist? Sometimes holding this up as a badge of honor, a flag to wave when trying to impress?

In actual fact, perfectionism is not something to be proud of because, if it gets out of hand, it can be a sign of mental illness, in extreme circumstances it’s a symptom of OCD.

To operate within the bounds of healthy perfectionism, normally you will have high standards but you will be happy to lower those standards if circumstances dictate, such as delegating to someone who does things differently to you. This is part of the profile of a high achiever and allows you to breathe with less angst, as long as the people you have delegated to are doing a good job in their own way.

If, however, you are never satisfied with the work others do or indeed your own, holding onto that piece of work or email until it’s “perfect,” you are stepping over the line into being a neurotic perfectionist.  Test yourself:

• Do you procrastinate and put off doing things because you are worried it won’t be perfect, only to find that you are tight up against a deadline and end up having to rush the job?

• Do you spend too much time thinking about what went wrong instead of what went right?

• Are you intolerant when people make mistakes or beat yourself up when you make mistakes?

These can be alarm warnings and a sign that perhaps you are not in as much control as you might wish.  If you recognise yourself here, these behaviors can even lead on to mental health problems such as depression, phobias, anxiety and even physical problems such as heart disease.

What is wrong with making mistakes anyway? That’s one of the ways we develop and grow and build a better business.

The reality is that no one will ever replicate exactly the way you do things; this would be ghastly in itself.  After all, their way may be better or at least different enough to make things interesting and progressive.

To do things well is always a goal. To develop and grow business is of course, a definite goal. To stay healthy both mentally and physically is an essential goal. So, taking some inspiration from the Disney film Frozen, here are five ways to “let it go”:

1. Don’t rush at hiring people. Wait for the right candidate for the role.  But don’t be put off if you think they may do things differently to you, but see this as a bonus as long as you don’t clash.

2. Realize that your way isn’t the only way. We all have flaws, accept it.

3. Mistakes are an opportunity for growth, embrace it.

4. Set realistic goals so that you and your people feel good about achieving them. If you have hired well, know that you are all good enough.

5. Focus on what went right and not what went wrong. Let it go.

It’s tough when you want to always do the best you possibly can, but don’t let it rule you. The important thing is to stay well and recognize that perfection is an illusion. Let it go.

Source: www.forbes.com

Image Credit: Shuttershock

ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business networking association dedicated to helping small businesses and entrepreneurs develop, expand and grow. We offer affordable opportunities to help create a positive impact and advancement in your business interests and personal quality of life to take you to the next level.
Stay Connected with WNFP!

5 Ways Growing Fast Can Cripple Your Business (and How to Fix It)

Business growth is a sure sign of success. Ergo, the faster your business expands, the more successful you must be, right?

But in the midst of all the potential and excitement promised by a wildly successful business, owners often neglect to consider the drawbacks of rapid expansion. That is, until they are swirling in the whirlwind.

The truth is, fast business growth isn't all popularity and financial bliss. There are numerous unexpected pitfalls that could stunt your growth before you even get a chance to enjoy the prosperity. Here are some of the most common growing pains you should watch out for.

1. The Unraveling of a Standardized Process
As you begin to rapidly grow, you'll need to improvise to meet increased demand. The higher demand climbs, the less time you'll have to redesign workflows to account for volume and new employees.

At this point, your old processes will stop working effectively. This is right about the time businesses enter a state of free fall.

The Fix

• Start by addressing operations that directly affect customer experience (like ordering and order-processing systems).
• Turn away customers if you must. Don't over-promise and under-deliver.
• Leverage technologies that will help streamline and automate. This will free your management and employees to focus on more pressing areas of business.

2. The Dissipation of Your Company Culture
When you grow fast and hire quickly, you run the risk of losing the spark that ignited your explosive growth.

Businesses often bring on too many contractors to keep up with growing demand, and these people may not be as invested in the company and end up walking away with insider intel. And demand is so great, there is no time for proper training and onboarding.

It's "sink or swim," and company culture often gets compromised in the riptide.

The Fix

• Define yourself. Is your company young and trendy, or professional and sophisticated?
• Expound your mission statement and values.
• Set cultural expectations for your organization.
• Build enthusiasm behind your company's mission and values. Lead by example.
• Do not hire outside your company culture. Make adequate time for hiring and recruit the right people.

3. The Downfall of Great Customer Service
Rapid growth means less face time with customers. It also means an onslaught of new customers who easily distract businesses from their current customers--you know, the patrons who helped them get where they are today, and are fully capable of making or breaking your reputation.

The Fix

• Set a company-wide standard of excellence in customer service.
• Address customer issues and questions quickly and thoughtfully.
• Actively ask for feedback from customers.
• Listen closely to customers and use intel to refine operations.

4. High Employee Turnover
Fast business growth will undoubtedly test the endurance and loyalty of your staff. For them, your success means facing a lot of changes. If they feel over-worked and under-valued, you risk veteran employees jumping ship faster than you can replace them

The Fix

• Incentivize hard work; give bonuses and positive reinforcement.
• Invite them to be a part of the process. Ask for their input as you reshape your brand and processes.
• Invest in your employees. Equip them with the tools they need to succeed.

5. Spatial Challenges
As you hire more employees, expand departments and prepare to meet heightened demands, you will inevitably outgrow your space.

But the answer isn't necessarily to expand office space. First, you need to understand how your employees are using their workspace, and whether all areas of your office space are being optimally utilized.

The Fix

• Listen to your employees and the requests they make.
• Be present on the floor.
• Utilize space management software to monitor employee usage of space and assets, and to forecast future needs.
• Expand accordingly.

With the right tools and practical knowledge, it is entirely possible to grow your business with grace. Keep these pitfalls in mind so you have the insight necessary to navigate your business in the right direction--even at full speed.

Source: http://www.inc.com/
Image Credit: Getty Images

ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business networking association dedicated to helping small businesses and entrepreneurs develop, expand and grow. We offer affordable opportunities to help create a positive impact and advancement in your business interests and personal quality of life to take you to the next level.
Stay Connected with WNFP!

10 Unsuspected Secrets for Growing Your Business to Ridiculous Success

Once you’ve started your business and got all the basics covered, you still need to work to constantly improve. Whether you need a little push when it comes to finances, marketing or time management, there are some unsuspected secrets out there for growing your business to ridiculous success. Check out the tips from members of our small business community below.

Find Out How Lenders View Your Tax Returns

Tax returns are part of most loan applications. But what exactly are those lenders looking for? In this Fundera Ledger post, Gretchen Schmid provides an in-depth look at how lenders view tax returns. You can also check out the discussion surrounding the post over on BizSugar.

Use These Project Management Tools to Support Your Team

Managing projects requires more than just staying on top of emails from team members. With the help of some actual project management tools and processes, you can actually support your team and their projects. Sebastien Boyer outlines some of those tools and techniques in this Nutcache post.

Manage Your Time Spent on Business Emails

Managing email can be a huge time suck for business owners. But some have found a good system for managing inboxes without requiring a big time commitment. Let Small Business Trends know all about your own email habits in the poll included in this post by Joshua Sophy.

Learn About Display Targeting
When it comes to online advertising, the way you target your ads can make a huge difference in the success of your campaigns. Display targeting can be effective, but only when used correctly. This post by Zoe Liang of Reef Digital includes information on different types of targeting and how to get the most out of your ad dollars.

Consider Hiring Temporary Employees

If your business is growing and you need some help getting everything done, but not necessarily on a long-term basis, you might consider looking into temporary employees. This CorpNet post by Rieva Lesonsky includes some tips for bringing on temporary help. And BizSugar members share thoughts on the subject here.

Keep an Eye Out for These Things When Hiring a Business Coach
A business coach or mentor can really help you take your business to the next level. But you need to know what to look for to make sure that your business coach is going to be a good fit. Stephen Moyers shares some tips for finding a great business coach in the SPINX Digital Blog.

Get More Online Reviews

You can only tell people how great your business is so many times. Sometimes, they just won’t hear the message unless it comes from someone else. That’s why getting positive online reviews is so important. Here, Aaron Weiche of GetFiveStars shares some tactics for getting more online reviews.

Understand What Good Customer Service Means

Providing good customer service isn’t just about making service staff members available. You also need to actually build relationships with customers, as Tony Paull of Tony Paull Consulting discusses in this post. The BizSugar community also discusses the post here.

Create “Big” Content

Just writing simple content for your business can only get you so far. If you want to take your content to the next level, you need to work on longer, more involved content. John Stevens of the Ahrefs blog shares how to write big content, even for non-writers.

Overcome These Mobile SEO Challenges

Marketing to mobile consumers is no longer optional. But that means you need to SEO specifically for mobile devices. In this Search Engine Journal post, Shane Barker outlines some common mobile SEO challenges that businesses face along with some solutions.


If you’d like to suggest your favorite small business content to be considered for an upcoming community roundup, please comment below.

Source: http://smallbiztrends.com/
Image Credit: Shutterstock


ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business networking association dedicated to helping small businesses and entrepreneurs develop, expand and grow. We offer affordable opportunities to help create a positive impact and advancement in your business interests and personal quality of life to take you to the next level.
Stay Connected with WNFP!

5 Lessons for Growing Your Small Business

There’s exciting news for those of us who love small businesses: the 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) found that nearly 14 percent of working age Americans are now either starting or running new businesses. That’s a record high for this study since it first began 16 years ago.

Small Business Week runs the first week of May to promote and honor America’s entrepreneurs and small business owners. After all, small businesses are the engine of the U.S. economy. According to data from the SBA, roughly two-thirds of all new jobs in this country are thanks to small businesses. And while it’s important to formalize this recognition with an official week, it’s equally important that we support small businesses throughout the year.

As a serial entrepreneur and someone who has helped tens of thousands small businesses get off the ground, I’ve come to appreciate one thing about small business ownership: starting a business may be hard, but scaling that business up can be even harder. That’s why I’m sharing some of the key lessons I’ve learned on how to grow your business and take it to the next level.

How To Grow Your Business

1. Focus On Your Brand, and More Branding

No matter how small your business may be, it has a brand. You may not have a marketing department or outside branding agency, but your business certainly has a brand. This is the emotional attachment that connects your customers to your product, service, and company. And it’s this emotional attachment that keeps your customers coming back more than pricing or any other strategy.

How do you want people to feel when they think about your company and product/service? How is your company inspiring its customers or creating other positive memories? Think deeply about these questions. Then, make sure that every aspect of your company — from your website to products, advertising, and employee policies — reinforces the brand image you want to portray.

2. Dedicate Blocks of Time to Work on the Business

There is a great article on Small Biz Trends offering solid tips on “How to Work ON Your Business, Not IN it“. When you’re running a business, you can keep yourself busy every second of the day. But busyness doesn’t necessarily equal success: in other words, just because you’re working around the clock doesn’t mean you’re driving your business forward.

If you are constantly focused on the day-to-day tasks and reacting to every request, email, or issue, it means that no one is actually working on building out the business for the long term. That makes it very hard to grow from where your business is right now. Set aside time in your schedule to work on getting new business and your company’s long-term strategy. Some choose to work only on new business deals every morning until 11 am; others schedule Friday afternoons or Monday mornings. Pick whatever time works for your schedule and stay disciplined: focusing on the future is the only way you can grow.

3. Surround Yourself with Great People

Small business owners are used to wearing all (or at least most) of the hats in their business. However, a successful company requires a team, not just one person. With only one person responsible for each decision or activity, there’s only so far your business can scale. Consider some of the tasks you could hand over to contractors, employees, interns, and even family members. Try delegating some of your major pain points first; this will free up your time to focus on the important stuff.

One word of advice. When small businesses start growing, owners often feel compelled to bring on a senior employee from a big company with an impressive resume. While this specific expertise can help in some cases, you should be hiring for smarts, work ethic, and culture-fit with your business rather than fancy words on a resume.

4. Invest in Your Legal Foundation

If you started a business without a clear growth strategy in mind, you may not have been thinking about a legal business structure. If you didn’t designate a structure, then by default, you’re operating as a sole proprietor (one owner) or general partnership (more than one owner). As you start growing, or are thinking about growing, it’s time to formalize your business structure — either by becoming a corporation or LLC (Limited Liability Company).
While there are several benefits to the corporation and LLC, the main advantage is that these structures help protect your personal assets. This means that if something should happen in your business (e.g. it gets sued or can’t pay its debts), then your personal assets can be protected and the responsibility falls on the shoulder of your business as its own entity.

5. Invest in Your Health and Sanity

A study from Bank of America found that managing a small business is twice as stressful as maintaining a healthy relationship with a spouse or partner and three times as stressful as raising children. Furthermore, small business owners routinely skip free time, exercise, and other personal priorities in order to focus on the business.

I can’t stress enough the importance of taking care of yourself, while you’re taking care of your business. After a few debilitating panic attacks brought on by business stress, I’ve learned to make my well being priority number one. When I’m feeling stuck or down, I get to the gym. Exercising and listening to music are my reset buttons. Find what feeds your soul and schedule it into your calendar just like an important client meeting. Because running a business is an ultra-distance marathon, and you need to have fuel in your tank to keep going.

Kudos to those of you who are traveling the exciting road of entrepreneurship. I know how hard the journey can be, but the challenges are so worth it!


Do you have any great tips to share on how to grow your business?





Image Credit: Shutterstock
Source: http://smallbiztrends.com/



ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business networking association dedicated to helping small businesses and entrepreneurs develop, expand and grow. We offer affordable opportunities to help create a positive impact and advancement in your business interests and personal quality of life to take you to the next level.
Stay Connected with WNFP!

3 Reasons Promoting From Within Is Better for Growing Your Business

Startups often make headlines when they hire big names to fill management positions. It’s conventional wisdom that you “go for the gusto” when it comes to hiring vice presidents or C-Suite executives -- you hire a recruiter and pay top-dollar for an established name.

But at AppLovin, we’ve found that promoting from within rather than hiring from the outside often yields great results. Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule, but here’s why I often prefer to cultivate people internally and advance them when the time is right.

1. Motivated employees work harder.

We prefer to promote based on merit as opposed to relying on dated formal review cycles that don’t align with our employees’ major accomplishments and goals. When people can be promoted at any time, it keeps them motivated and adds incentive for them to do their best year-round, as opposed to burning the midnight oil the month before their performance evaluation.

Outside hires can sap the motivation for mid-level and junior-level talent to work harder and move up the ladder. When you promote from within, your employees know that the sky's the limit, so they always work hard and deliver more for your company. In my experience, this “sky’s the limit” approach creates an atmosphere of optimism that has a positive effect on everyone.

2. Opportunity, happy people = higher retention.

When you promote from within, you also save money and boost morale by increasing your retention rate. Twenty-nine percent of workers cite lack of career opportunity as the key factor that makes them think about leaving, and it’s certainly true that any perception of a “revolving door” can contribute to instability and make people think about finding a new job. But both in terms of the financial and cultural health of your company, you want to build a nice community where people can picture themselves for the long haul. When employees know they are the first to be considered for a more senior role, they become more aligned in striving for overall company growth over a significant period of time. This approach enriches the corporate culture and helps everyone feel like they’re working toward a common goal.

Hiring through recruiters is also remarkably expensive. One study found that the cost of recruiting and training a middle manager can cost between six and nine months of the candidate’s salary. And it only gets pricier as you go up the ladder. Employees that make six figures or more can often cost twice their annual salary to recruit.

3. Internal hires adapt better to new roles.

We all know how outside hires can sometimes struggle to adapt, and we’ve all known people who landed their “dream job” only to find out that it’s not what they expected. When you bring in somebody new, they don’t necessarily know the culture and won’t know the company’s best practices from the bottom up, and unfortunately that can sometimes spell dissatisfaction or outright failure.

True enough, one of the advantages to bringing in someone from the outside is that they can offer a fresh point-of-view. But that can be a double-edged sword: while outside perspectives are crucial for a company to prevent tunnel vision, differing management styles can create a serious culture clash and harm employee morale.

When you promote from within, you bring up someone who embodies the DNA of the company, and you avoid the friction of ramping up someone from the outside. Promoting from within also shows how the company is growing and leveraging that growth into opportunity for its current employees. It’s an act of faith that gives everyone a greater sense of stability both financially and emotionally.

Sometimes you do need to look outside the company in order to find someone with the skills you need, but if you can promote from within, you should. When you pursue headline-chasing or “silver-bullet” hires, it’s likely you’re not just failing to cultivate insiders who could do the job beautifully and be role models for other employees. It’s good practice to slow down before you call a recruiter and think through the potential of someone you already have on board.

Image Credit: Shutterstock.com

Source: https://www.entrepreneur.com


ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business networking association dedicated to helping small businesses and entrepreneurs develop, expand and grow. We offer affordable opportunities to help create a positive impact and advancement in your business interests and personal quality of life to take you to the next level.
Stay Connected with WNFP!