Why Helping Your Community Brings In More Business -- All The Roles You Can Play

Why Community Involvement Matters

Communities are stronger when their members come together and I believe small business owners should be catalysts making it happen, because they have the most to gain.  

Here’s why… the vast majority of new customers travel less than 10 miles and are most likely to find you via referrals from others.  That means if you want greater success you need to invest in building relationships with others in your community.  

So, what role will you play in your community? While your DNA may preclude you from becoming a community “organizer,” everyone can find a role, which can lead to greater business success.

The Roles You Can Play

The most successful local communities on Alignable have a number of participants who step into leading roles, and many others who are most comfortable as supporting cast members.  The most important thing is for you to actually play a role, instead of just sitting on the sidelines.  

If you’re leaning towards a role as a supporting cast member also consider yourself as an understudy for one or more of the leading roles.  Why? Because these folks tend to generate the greatest awareness for themselves and their businesses. Accordingly, they see a disproportionate share of the benefits generated through community involvement.  

Lead Roles:

• Community Organizers: While a natural role for local business organizations, in many cases, this role is played by individual business owners with a strong passion for the local community.  They organize meetups, drum up interest in community events (like holiday strolls or artist walks), and in general, just love to bring the entire local community together.  These folks work hard to make sure everyone is included and recruit others to join the show.  

• Educators: These people like to use their expertise or experiences to help others.  Mentors of sorts, educators always find time to share a bit of valued advice with others.  They actively solicit questions and also willingly direct people to other experts when they don’t know the answer.  This is an ideal role for anyone who has small business owners as clients. By sharing your knowledge, you’ll become a go-to resource for other business owners within the community. 

• Matchmakers: They seem to know almost everyone in town. They’re natural connectors and can refer people to all kinds of local resources. Count your blessings when referrals come from these people, because they hold a lot of swagger in the community!  Great real estate agents, accountants, and business consultants often fall naturally into this role.

• Enablers: They willingly share resources needed by others from time to time.  These folks are the first to offer up their location for meetups or events and expect nothing more than a little time to say “Hi” to the attendees, as well as a “Thank you” from participants.  Creative restaurant, coffee shop, and even bar owners often leverage their venues as a resource for others. I’ve even seen hotels and law firms with nice conference rooms offer up space for others to meet as a public service. 

• Town Criers: These people tend to be in the know about what’s going on what others should care  most about in the local business community. They look for ways to share the information with the greater community in a level-headed manner, and expect others participating in the conversation to do the same. This is a natural role for marketers, people in public relations and social media, and retail business owners. But depending on the topic, almost anyone can step into this lead role.

Supporting Roles:

• The Good: All it takes to be a supporting cast member is an interest in building a great community.  These people understand how by making connections and building trusted relationships, they ultimately will benefit and they’re willing to invest the time and effort to do it right.  Building trust with others is at the core of their business success and these folks are the backbone of the local community’s success.   

• The Conflicted: These folks join the community with the intent of getting as much out of it as possible without giving something in return. Ultimately, these individuals either quickly learn to participate positively within the community or they leave because the greater community tunes them out.

Stage Crew:

• That’s us! This is the role all of us here at Alignable try to play behind the scenes to create a stage where all the players can come together, build vibrant trust-based relationships, and ultimately enable local communities to thrive at levels never before witnessed on Earth!  It’s no small task, but we’re up for the challenge.  

It’s Opening Night… Time for Action!

Ok folks, it’s opening night and we’ve set the stage for you and 30,000 other local communities on Alignable.  It’s now time for you to pick the roles you want to play and get situated on stage, so you can start to take action and move your business and community to the next level.

Scene One: Be a good neighbor

The scene starts with a new business opening on Main Street and all other business owners stopping by to make a personal connection and welcome them to the neighborhood. They’ll want to learn about the business owner, see what she has to offer, and to share a little of their own advice from when they first put up their shingle on Main Street.  

Tips from the stage crew:

• Where to find new members
• How to introduce yourself

Scene Two: It’s who you know

All cast members realize Word-of-Mouth referrals come from people who know them and trust them enough to put their reputations on the line to promote their work.  Members have literally been working out next to each other in yoga class for months, only to figure out by looking through the pictures in their local directory that they were both small business owners!  So, find the time to locate all of the other business owners you already know and add them to your network.  

Tips from the stage crew:

• Find them in your address book
• Scroll through your local directory

Scene Three: Meet some new folks

On the outskirts of town, a community organizer joins forces with a few enablers to host a local networking meetup for members of the local business community.  They enlist support from a few town criers to get the word out and all of the leading roles and supporting cast members come together for a wild night of networking. They even play Alignable’s Spark Networking Game and everyone leaves the get together having met 5 people with whom they share something in common.  

Tips from the stage crew:

• How to Host a Meetup
• What’s Spark and how do I get a deck of cards? 
• Turn Empty Space into New Clients

Scene Four: Be a local champion

Most people wait for someone else to make the first move, because they worry about how others will react.  These people most likely won’t become small business owners. While all too often business owners make critical business decisions alone, they recognize the value of working with others. Whether you consider yourself a lead actor or a member of the supporting cast, being willing to start a discussion around local business issues or in support of community events makes you a local champion.  

Tips from the stage crew:

• Why start a local discussion
• Some local champions share their top tips 

Scene Five: Share some industry knowledge

The scene opens with Bill the business owner alone on his iPhone trying to figure out Instagram, while next door Serina just wants to know why her books aren’t balancing. Can anybody help? 

Over half of our members sell products or services to other small business owners and the best way to make a lasting impression is to give away some industry knowledge and help others with their challenges.  Whether you’re a marketing consultant, lawyer, accountant or hiring expert, you have knowledge others need and will treasure! Share your expertise to attract people looking for what you have to offer. The more you give away, the more awareness you’ll gain, which increases the number of new clients you’ll attract.

Tips from the stage crew:

• How to search for questions to answer
• Inbound marketing guide 

The Final Scene of Act One: Recommend Other Locals

One of the best ways to invest in your community is to simply write a glowing recommendation for another local business owner you know and trust.  By sharing kind words about another business owner, you’ll be helping him or her to stand out from the crowd, while sending great vibes across the community, and sharing your local knowledge with others.  

The great news is when they accept your recommendation, it gets shared with both your network and the entire network of the business you’ve recommended.  And just like that, others see you as a great supporter of the local business community, raising your status to lead actor. Well done! You should plan on writing a great recommendation and review each week….

Tips from the stage crew:

• Recommend your clients and other favorite local businesses
• Getting clients to recommend you

Conclusion

As the scene fades on Act One, local business owners along Main Street and from across town come together in the town square and proclaim:  “Wow… We Are All Stronger Together!” 

Curtain…

Enjoy a brief intermission, grab some Twizzlers, and then head back to your seats to do it all over again in Act Two and beyond.