“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.””
— Martin Luther King, Jr.

Are you starting a new business? Or maybe you already have a small business?  Let me ask you if you have thousands of dollars to advertise in newspapers, billboards, and TV commercials? Unless you are in the league of Bill Gates, my guess is that you do not. In order to generate new business it is essential to market your business and sometimes this can be a very costly.
So how do you market your business and get the word out in an inexpensive way to let people know about your great product or service?
It is a well known fact is 70% of new business is through “word of mouth.”  Business networking is a powerful way to activate this word of month. It’s fundamentally about the act of referring business to people that you have grown to know, like and trust, and for them to do the same for you.
Networking allows you to formally explain what your business is about and, as fellow networking business people get to know you, you will naturally start to win new sales leads because people like to pass business to people that they know.
Attending a networking event will raise your profile especially if you network on a regular basis. Recognition and repetition by attending a regular networking event achieves this.
Networking not only gives you the opportunity to present your business, you also get to meet with many other business people that will inevitably be able to help solve some of your problems. And you will be able to do the same; it’s all part of the relationship building process and at the end of the day it’s this relationship that counts when recommending someone’s services.
The Crescenta Valley Chamber of Commerce is an excellent and affordable way to ramp up your networking. With our monthly networking opportunities it allows you to build relationships, which invariably lead to referrals, which leads to increased business. The more people that know you and what you do can only help your business’s bottom line. At a chamber mixer you have the opportunity to meet, network and get to know 50-60 new customers. With those new customers telling 50-60 of their friends also about your business, the new customers from attending mixers could be endless.
One of our biggest networking events is Wednesday, Sept. 8. The Foothills Business Community Expo is held every year at the Verdugo Hills Hospital and 65 vendors set up in the council rooms of the hospital displaying and networking with the other participants and the general public that attends at no charge.
There are only a few booths left. Call the chamber for information right away.
Important Chamber dates: Sept. 8 – Foothills Community Business Expo; Sept. 25 – Running of the Foothills 5K Run/Walk; Oct. 13 – Business mixer at Bonners Equipment Rentals. Please call our office for more details on any event. How to reach us (818) 248-4957 / crescentachamber@aol.com / www.LaCrescenta.org / 3131 Foothill Blvd., Ste. D.

Julia Rabago is the executive director of Crescenta Valley Chamber of Commerce.