Brent Edwards breaks down the four steps every small business owner needs to turn connections into real business growth: no hype, no card-collecting, just a system that works.
GROWTH PILLAR:Networking & Community
WHO THIS IS FOR: SMB owners / Solopreneurs / Newcomers to Canada / Leaders building referral systems
WHAT THEY'LL GAIN: A four-step framework for building a relationship ecosystem that generates leads, visibility, and lasting business partnerships
Most people are networking. Very few are building something that lasts.
Brent Edwards, Owner of BrentCanada Experiences, spent seven years at the Ontario Chamber of Commerce managing relationships with corporate members — and in that time, he watched three types of professionals consistently outperform everyone else in the room. Not because they had the biggest networks. Because they built the right ones.
At East Trade Winds S3E044, Brent walks through four practical steps to build what he calls a relationship ecosystem — a network designed to take your business where you want it to go in the next five years.
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Brent (00:05)
It's great to be with East Trade Wins group today. And what I'm so excited about is that we have so many people from other parts of the world who are joining us today. I'm do lot of my work with Brent Canada experiences with newcomers to Canada. And a lot of them are small business owners. And one of the questions that they're always asking me is, what are the secrets to networking Canada networking in Canada? How do you build relationships that are lasting?
And impactful to your business. So I'm going to share with you today some of the learnings I've had from my time in my career, and my learnings in dealing with these challenges that a lot of newcomers to Canada have. Because we're all newcomers in some way, shape, or form, whether it's new to our business opportunity, new to dealing with a specific client, new to a new community or new city. It's skills that we all need to.
hone. And that's one of the reasons that we joined such a great group such as East Trade Winds. So t my topic today is around c cultivating your relationship ecosystem, the secrets of effective networkers.
So I'm going to pose a question to start with, which is around your growth strategy, since we're all small business owners. And think about your growth strategy. And I'm going to go from a quote from someone I admire a lot. His name is Kinsley Aikens. He's the CEO and the founder of the Diaspora Institute in Dublin, Ireland. His question is: will your current network take you where you want to go and want to be in the next five years?
So think about the connections that you have, the relationships with people, your business connections, your collaborators. Give some thought in terms of is this network that you have today is it diverse enough? Is it helped? Is it set up for success for you in terms of where you want to be in the next five years? One of the ways I got actually introduced to Kingsley is through a new networking group I
recently joined, which is called Global Blue Nosers. it's actually for people who have a connection or love for Nova Scotia, where we have a family cottage. And the Irish have are renowned for having spread out throughout the world, including my ancestors, and having to build relationships around the world. And Kingsley did this through representing the Irish government for many years in six different countries and has learned a lot through the diaspora
around the world. And we have so many people from different diasporas in Canada who don't have social capital in Canada, but they have strong social capital in the countries that they've come from. And one of the things that motivates me with Brent Canada experiences is to build a bridge between those areas of social network and social capital to help make Canada stronger.
So for the conversation I'm going to be sharing with you some of the secrets of effective networkers, four steps to help discovering your own growth ecosystem, and the most important skill for each step. I have a question for you. Which occupations do you think are effective networkers?
Give some thought to the people that you've worked with and thought about and maybe put some ideas into the chat.
During my time at the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, where I was for seven years the keycap manager responsible for the relationships with our corporate members, I found three specific professions that were absolutely amazing at networking. They were real estate agents, financial services professionals, and public affairs professionals. And the folks in public affairs, a lot of them had roles as
Stakeholder relations or lobbyists. So what is it about them that made them so effective? Well, they had diverse networks of connections, they were visible, they were engaged and consistent, they were active in their own professional development, and they had strong pipelines of projects and prospects. They'd each created their own relationship ecosystem.
I'm also inspired by Ivan Meisner, who many of you will know is the founder of BI. And what he said was that networking is not about hunting. It's about farming. It's about cultivating relationships. You'll be a better networker if you remember that. So I'm going to use that as a bit of a framework to share some of these secrets and suggestions on how you can be an even more successful networker than you already are.
So, what I'd encourage you to do since we're we are in July and this part of southern Ontario, things are growing like weeds, but my wife has an amazing backyard garden. She's into growing produce. And there are four things that you need for input to grow a garden or an ecosystem. There's soil, sun, cultivation, and you need to be able to harvest them. And this applies to building your networking ecosystem.
Because your business really is a seed and you need to be planting in a place where it can actually grow. So for relationships for to grow for your business, you need an organic network, a place to shine, an area that will give you personal growth, and a pipeline of leads. So first building an organic network. What I would encourage and what I've found is having a broad network of connections is incredibly valuable.
An organic network can help you research new markets, understand market trends, find suppliers, employees, funders, customers, and build relationships with stakeholders. This really is the fund foundations for strategic business development strategy. You'll need all of those, regardless of if you're self-employed or whether you have a team of people working in your business. Think about how diverse your network is.
Geographically, by industry and sector, by the duration of the relationship, where you actually establish those connections from? Are those folks mostly in person or do you have online relationships? If you think about this like as a portfolio of investments, how diversified they are for market conditions. There's always new economic news coming, for good or for bad. And are you prepared for the next five years in terms of your portfolio?
of business relationships. Where are you finding your network? Across the world, there are chambers of commerce and boards of trade and business improvement areas, alumni associations. There are events with post-secondary institutions, trade shows, conventions, conferences, networking clubs like East Trade Winds. There's buying groups, professional associations, advocacy groups. How many of these are you actually taking advantage of to build and develop your network?
A lot comes down to whether you want to go to belong to a membership organization or actually focus on specifically going to in-person or online events. Some of them are combined, such as the ones that we that Bernie and team run here with these trade wins. But it's really about seeking connections and diversifying who the people are that you're dealing with. Second step.
is to find a place for your business to shine. You're really looking for events where you can build visibility and demonstrate your expertise. There are so many that are available regardless of where you are on the call today. There are presentations by local businesses that are available. There are networking sessions run by boards of trade and chambers of commerce. Before eight events, after 5 p.m, mayor's breakfast, there's sponsorship and speaking opportunities.
Community initiatives, award gallas. There's access to political leaders depending on the market you're in. There are policy and administration committees, board opportunities, public policy work, and advocacy projects. There's a wealth of opportunities for you to showcase your business, showcase your commitment to your community, and show how that you're giving back.
In terms of the event choices, there are other organizations such as consulates at different levels of government. There are ways to demonstrate your expertise, including podcasts which we've highlighted today, opportunities to host a fireside chat, be a keynote speaker, be involved in a public consultation, get involved in a trade mission, sponsor a gala, be a TED talk speaker, be part of a pitch competition, or judge a pitch competition.
There's so much expertise and there are so many groups and organizations that are looking for you as a small business owner to to participate and share your expertise.
The third step is to invest in your personal growth. A lot of us have chosen these trade winds as our group of choice in terms of personal growth. Some of us have also joined other networking groups to to find this. But this is the stage where you've you've grown, you've got the soil, you've got the sunshine, but you do need to do some weeding. You do need to do some cultivating to make sure that your plant and your seed is growing.
So look for areas where there is support. You want to be looking for areas where there is a safe environment, where it is welcoming, where there's a diverse group of people who are participating. You might prefer an area where there's low pressure in terms of selling, or there might be ones that you really are looking for a referral network. A mastermind group may be the right choice for you. You might want to get involved more in a public policy.
these are really areas that can stretch you as a person and help you develop as a person. a lot of us who are self-employed need to have really an ecosystem, others around us to push us, to mentor us, to coach us. Mentors and coaches can help on calibrating expectations, on relationships. They can help us with time perception, especially for people who are new to a market. They may need.
Help in terms of understanding the size of the asks. Is this a five cent ask or a $5,000 ask? Am I asking too early? Asking too late? How am I building trust in person? am I understanding what is culturally appropriate in a business environment? Some folks are coming from markets where small talk is not something that that is done. they get right down to business. And if you're doing business, particularly in the markets I work in.
Small talk is a necessity to start building those relationships. How are you demonstrating consistency and reliability to build trust? And mentors and coaches, other small business owners can assist you with doing that. The fourth and final step is to discover events that can lead you to customers. So you you've taken the seed, you've put in the soil, you've got the sunshine.
Pouring down, you've you're watering and cultivating your produce, but you really need to be in a position where you can actually harvest that for your business. so let's take a look at some of the opportunities that are available. For example, I live in the Greater Toronto area, and on average, there's about 25,000 events a year in the 20 in the GTA, about 10,000 alone in Toronto. So what I would suggest is
To be selective and ask some good questions. If you're looking to be part of a trade show, convention, or conference in Toronto. I actually have an assessment that I can share with you to help you make sure that you're prepared if you're investing resources and time, whether you're exhibiting at an event or coming as an attendee. If you look at some of the sample customer events, consider whether you are principally in a B2C organization or if you're
small businesses mostly B2B. Are you mostly focused on products or services? This will determine the type of events that you want to be part of. If you're in B2C and you're looking for like retailers and distributors, you'll probably want something that where you can demonstrate your track record of performance. Might be a marketplace. If you're in B2B but you don't need to deal with retailers and distributors, references are really important.
And trade shows might be the f the focus for you. If you, on the other hand, you're focused mostly on services, like a lot of the folks on the call today are, referrals for B2C, referral networks might be really the area that you need to focus your energy on. Where others who are more on the B2B side offering services are going to be looking for endorsements and being parts of associations, whether you're an advisor on a board of directors, would be really helpful.
For the type of business that you're building. Here's an example of several of the customer events in the GTA that I've been part of or have attended. GTA Entrepreneurs is a group that has chapters throughout Toronto, a lot of small business owners. The Greater Toronto area for folks who are from other markets is really the Las Vegas of Canada for trade shows, conferences, and conventions.
so many of them come through Toronto or the area. So it's a great area to to look at how you're participating, whether as a delegate or as an exhibitor. There are also other groups such as Lead such as Lead Tribes, which is another group in the Greater Toronto area, focused a lot on real estate agents and folks who are in the financial services industry, but also includes others. That's been very successful. And for myself, I'm actually involved.
With the Canada Startup Association, which is a fairly new association which focuses on helping newcomer entrepreneurs in Canada to find and leverage the social capital that they have from other countries to develop export opportunities and help the Canadian market crow. So to summarize, I encourage you to be strategic in your choice of events.
Don't expect one group or event to meet all your needs and get out there and meet as many people as you as you can. don't judge a book by its cover. You never know what people used to do, what they do today in their business, who they know, or who they might become.
If you'd like to connect, here's my contact information.