With the impact of COVID-19 affecting the hospitality industry now more than ever, we are being reminded of just how important professional relationships are.
If you are a business owner, connecting with other businesses helps to build mutually beneficial relationships, boosts the local economy and may be the answer to weathering the storm. Here are some ways how:
Emotional support
Whether it’s trying to survive the current crisis, deal with a new product launch that didn’t go as well as expected, or dealing with some damaging customer feedback, it’s important to stay motivated. Offering and receiving emotional support and a non-judgemental platform for sharing challenges – whether on social media, within the community or your local business chamber – helps businesses stay focussed when times are hard. And in the good times, these relationships are invaluable when it comes to celebrating your successes.
Mentorship
Taking emotional support one step further, you may be able to find someone within your network who can act as a mentor to help your business grow. Beyond offering advice, knowledge and insights gained from their own experience, a good mentor will also be able to help you enhance your offering, develop your professional skills, and help you build a broader network.
Sharing knowledge and expertise
Most pubs and clubs offer the same products or services. So building a strong support network within the industry helps you tap into a broad range of expertise and local knowledge. Networking can open the doors to finding new customers and suppliers, help you stay on top of trends and industry updates, and even identify new business opportunities.
Collaboration
Talking to other businesses can also help you understand where there may be opportunities to collaborate on new ideas, explore synergies and create partnerships to give you access to new customers, products or markets. Look out for businesses outside hospitality that have resources you can leverage for a ‘win-win’. Is there a potential partner to help sell your product or service to their customer base? What could you offer them in exchange? Is there an opportunity to package or bundle your products together?
Social media support
Tagging, commenting and sharing on social media channels (such as Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn) is extremely helpful in building customer awareness across brands and businesses. Following, liking and interacting with businesses in your network on social media and asking them to return the favour is a great way to build more awareness of your business and create potential leads.
As a relationship bank, we ensure our clients stay connected with the right people across the whole BOQ Business team.
Find out how BOQ Business backs other Australian businesses with relationship banking and speak with a Corporate Banking Relationship Manager for tailored banking solutions to the hospitality industry.