Some time back, I wrote this article called, Chamber of Commerce Networking Events Are A Waste Of Your Time.

I knew that would bug some people. The headline of the article itself was intended to grab attention. (I do have a copywriting background, after all.)

But I didn’t write the article to annoy people. I wrote it because I believe it and I want to give you something to think about. In the end, it doesn’t matter whether you agree with me or not. In fact, if all I’ve done is cause you to re-commit to an opinion that’s totally opposite of mine, that’s a good thing.

Today, I found this article taking me to task for my article. Looks like it was written a year ago, but some things that are brought up are worth commenting on.

Frank Kenny writes:

I wish he would have allowed comments.

I don’t allow comments on either of my blogs because I don’t have the time to address people who comment on a regular basis. If you take the time I post a comment, I feel I owe you the respect of a response. But I just can’t these days… business is good, free time is short. That’s why my own participation in other blogs is way down.

And, sad to say, there seems to be a lot of people who make it their mission to be disruptive on blogs whether it’s with rude, disrespectful comments, or spam. Again, I just don’t have the time to deal with it.

Having said that, I’m never opposed to including a well thought-out rebuttal in a future article if you want to contact me directly. Or posting an article that links to your own blog where you have a different point of view. In fact, that’s what I’m doing with Mr. Kenny’s article. I wish I had known about it long before now.

He fails to mention being of service. He is all about “what’s in it for me”. People like this are horrible networkers because all they want to do is take.

Actually, I failed to mention lots of things. It was already a long article. I could have written pages and pages more.

But for the record, I’m not all about “what’s in it for me.” I was a Chamber Ambassador, on the board of the Chamber Ambassadors (even nominated for Ambassador of the Year), on numerous committees, etc. My trouble ended up being that I was giving too much at the expense of my freelance business. (Same thing with being in Rotary.)

Going beyond that, the seminars/classes I’ve taught, these blog articles to share my experiences with other freelancers… that doesn’t come from someone who is selfish. I’m not sure how Mr. Kenny could read the original article and come to that conclusion, unless he thought I was lying when I wrote:

Years later, when I became a freelance writer, I had the some of the best times of my professional life volunteering as a chamber Ambassador and getting involved in the community in ways I had never done before. Some of the people that I worked with on various committees remain good friends even though I’m no longer a member of any chamber.

So, again, I have nothing against chambers in general.

But his point about people who are just in it for themselves being horrible networkers is spot-on. In fact, that’s one of the main reasons why Chamber networking events can be such a waste of your time… the people who are just in it for themselves.

To a certain degree, you have to have a bit of “what’s in it for me” in you. You’re not running a charity… you’re running a freelancer copywriting or design business. You have bills to pay. There does come a point where you have to be on the receiving end of things.

You can only control your own actions and attitudes, though. It’s a nice idea that you can change people and their attitude about networking. And given enough time and effort, you could probably make good progress in changing other people. But we always have to come back to the reality that, as a freelancer, you have limited time and probably limited financial resources. If you’re not focused on the right things, you’ll soon be out of business. (And then the Chamber loses, too, because you’ll have to stop being a paying member.)

Glad he is not a member of my chamber.

I interpret that comment as one coming for a person who is personally hurt that I strongly said something he didn’t agree with. Otherwise, I’m not sure why you’d say something like that without really knowing me or developing a deeper understanding of why I believe what I believe if it’s not making any sense to you. It would be unfair to expect anyone to read every blog post I’ve written here or elsewhere, but I think it would create a very clear picture of my attitude toward giving. It’s a shame to apparently be judged like that off of one blog article that holds an opposing view.

It’s not bragging for me to say I was a valued member of my Chamber because of all the volunteer time I put in to help make my Chamber as good as it could be. They were sad when I moved away because it’s hard to find people who are willing to put in so much extra volunteer time. (And can do so during “business” hours because of my flexible freelance hours.) Chambers would be much stronger if more people would find ways to pitch in.

I would have been a valued member of Mr. Kenny’s Chamber, too. But because I criticized one aspect of Chamber membership, I guess I’m marked as selfish, despite my comments in the original article and my service to my own Chamber at the time.

Addressing some of the other comments made by others in Mr. Kenny’s post, I would agree that Chambers need to do a better job of helping people understand what might be realistic in their networking environment. I don’t think my Chamber did a really good job at that time. And part of that blame falls on me as someone who was on the Ambassador Board. The beauty of 20-20 hindsight, eh?

And I would also agree that Chambers do far more to help businesses than just hold monthly networking events. But that still doesn’t mean Chamber membership is the best thing for you, much less their networking events.

There are very few, if any, Chambers that have unlimited resources. So they have to make tough decisions on what they can offer, now more than ever. That means they can’t be all things to all people. So it’s not being selfish for you to examine whether you’re getting good value from your Chamber or any of their events. While it might not be fair, for beginning or struggling freelancers, “good value” can sometimes be nothing less than “paid projects.”

I stand by everything I said in the original article including how Chambers have a tendency to create an atmosphere of “attend our event to make sales.” Unfortunately, it’s natural for smaller businesses that are struggling to go into those events with that mindset.

If you get a roomful of people like that, it’s not so much a matter of them all being selfish, although I’m sure some are. Instead, I think it’s more about not being educated by their Chamber or still being totally unrealistic if their Chamber does have an educational program in place. (And as someone said, that might be as simple as Chamber Ambassador becoming something of a “big brother, big sister” to the new member.)

I also need to point out that my article was in a narrow focus of freelance copywriters and designers and using your networking time most efficiently. We are sometimes seen as a luxury. At best, people know the value of what we do and would love to hire us, but simply can’t afford us. Again, that’s something even more prevalent in this economic environment than it was when I wrote the original article. At some point, you have to move on to better opportunities. (And I gave ideas for that in my original article.)

I didn’t say you shouldn’t join a Chamber. I didn’t say you shouldn’t attend Chamber networking events.  I didn’t say there’s no value at all in talking to the non-bigwigs of a company. I certainly didn’t say you should go in with a “what’s in it for me” attitude.

What I did say was that these events may not be the most efficient use of your time. I did say that, given limited time, there might be better opportunities for you, the copywriter or designer.

And here’s what I did say from my original article (with copywriters and designers in mind):

To network efficiently and to land projects that will help you reach your financial goals, you need to be where your best clients are. My guess is they’re not sitting next to you at a chamber breakfast once a month.

That’s just my opinion based on my experience and the experience of writer/designer colleagues across the U.S. If your Chamber is different, I am truly happy for you. In fact, I’d like to hear about it and post it here. If you’re a freelance copywriter or designer, send me your positive Chamber networking event story and a link to your site so I can consider it for inclusion on this blog.

I want to end with a link to a PDF. It’s an article I wrote several years ago called, 12 Steps to Make Networking Events Successful. That was based on lots of Chamber events I attended, first as a total newcomer (and pretty-much a know-nothing networker), then as an Ambassador with a lot more experience under my belt.

Honestly, with my hand over my heart, I do not hate chambers of commerce.

In fact, my interactions with various chambers have been incredibly positive over the years. But note that I said “with chambers” and not “with chamber networking events.”

Going back to my career in a small-town radio station newsroom, chambers were my lifeline to just about anyone you could think of when it came to putting together news stories.

Years later, when I became a freelance writer, I had the some of the best times of my professional life volunteering as a chamber Ambassador and getting involved in the community in ways I had never done before. Some of the people that I worked with on various committees remain good friends even though I’m no longer a member of any chamber.

So, again, I have nothing against chambers in general.

Having said that, I’m now going to say something that chamber folks won’t like:

In my experience and the experience of other freelance colleagues, typical chamber networking events are not the most worthwhile use of your time if you’re heck-bent on earning a great living as a freelance writer or designer. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that they are a waste of your time.

So now that I’ve pretty-much ended any chance of being hired by a chamber, let’s continue…

Your local chamber is a business, just like you. Don’t ever forget that. And like any business, they need money to keep going. They need to pay their staff, provide health benefits to the staff, pay rent, pay phone/electric/trash bills, keep the copy machine running with a continual supply of toner and paper, rent out a facility for special events, pay for food and drinks at various chamber events, produce marketing material for potential chamber members, keep the office computers running, pay the annual cost of the chamber website… the list is pretty long.

The money they bring in, besides covering their costs, are often used for things that help the member businesses… seminars, marketing opportunities, lobbying your local or state government on behalf of local business, etc.

You’re helping pay for these things not only with your annual dues but also with other costs throughout the year. In fact, if I were being really cynical, I might say that becoming a chamber member simply gives you the “privilege” of spending more money to get full value of all the “opportunities to promote your business” that they’ll throw your way.

And that’s one of the things they’ll try to hook you with as you consider becoming a member: you’ll get lots of opportunities to promote your business. Unfortunately, that often means you’ll be paying more than just your annual dues for those opportunities. That includes getting you to sponsor events, attend seminars, place ads in the monthly newsletter and, yes, attend the traditional monthly chamber networking event.

Keep in mind that there’s nothing wrong with this setup. It works out just fine for lots of businesses and that might include yours. And if a chamber provides value to your business, there’s nothing wrong with them making money for their efforts.

But let’s not lose track of our very narrow focus here: the chamber networking event and whether it’s the most efficient way to market your freelance design or copywriting business.

Obviously, I haven’t attended every chamber networking event. In fact, given the number of chambers in the world, I’ve been to just a miniscule percentage of chamber events. But after years of working with chambers in different capacities, and talking with colleagues, I’m very comfortable with my observations.

The hook to get you to show up to the traditional chamber networking event is that you can market yourself and make sales. That’s great because that’s what you want… to make sales. But think about it for a minute. How is the event being marketed to everyone else? As a chance to buy your services? Nope… it’s marketed to everyone as a chance to – say it with me – make sales.

Some chambers might go so far as to mention that you may meet people who have services you need. But in order to get you to pay for the event, and maybe even pay extra to have a table full of your materials, the selling point to everyone is primarily on selling, not buying. And that’s the mindset most people have when they walk through the doors.

As a freelancer, I was a member of a chamber in a city of about 100,000 with even more people in neighboring cities. The city was home to a naval base, Boeing and Verizon. As a freelancer, any of those three would have been a great client. But do you know how often they showed up to the chamber “cattle-call”? Never.

And who could blame them? What is Boeing going to sell at a chamber event? A fleet of airplanes? Obviously they want to make sales, but they know where they need to focus their marketing efforts and it’s not at a $12 breakfast once a month. (That alone should start to tip you off about how you should approach your own marketing.)

If I want to land Boeing as a client, for example, what should I be doing? More on that in a bit, but you probably know by now what the answer isn’t.

So who does typically attend a chamber networking event? You can put most attendees into two categories.

The first is commissioned sales people. These are the folks who will leave no stone unturned to find a buyer. And while they might be able to recommend you to their boss or marketing department, your typical salesperson is not the person you really need to talk with to land a freelance job. Once the typical salesperson determines you’re not a buyer, he or she is going to want to move on as quickly as possible.

That’s not an insult to salespeople… it’s actually smart business. To quote a line from the TV show MASH, “It’s nice to be nice to the nice”, but it’s not the most efficient way to hit your financial goals. So you can’t expect a salesperson to stand around shooting the breeze with you when they’re trying to earn a living and there are other prospects in the room.

(Side note: One of the reasons beginning freelancers don’t make it is because they don’t take their business as seriously as they should. Successful business and sales people have learned that while networking is a good thing, they can’t waste a lot of time on activities that clearly aren’t making them money.)

The second category you tend to see at chamber networking events is small business owners or employees of the business. In fact, you can probably relate to them being a small business owner yourself. So it’s easy to put yourself in their shoes. In their minds, if money were no object, it would be great to hire a team of marketing folks to write and design marketing material. Wouldn’t you like to have that luxury yourself when it comes to enhancing your business?

But chances are your business isn’t flush with cash. That’s why you’re attending networking events in an effort to drum up business. And that’s the same situation most of the small business folks are in. They’d love to hire you, and they even understand the value of what you do. But money is tight and you’re seen as a bit of a luxury. After all, most small business owners are smart enough to put together some basic brochures and business cards. And the local newspaper is more than happy to help them put together an ad. It might not be the greatest piece of marketing, but in their minds it’s something and it will have to do.

Here’s something else to keep in mind. For a number of small business people, the monthly networking event is simply a chance to socialize with friends. They know virtually everyone in the room and are realistic about their chances of making a sale that day. Personally, I enjoyed talking with my friends at these events. For some of us, it was about the only contact with non-family members that we got. But after a while, coming home without the prospect of a meaningful sale got old.

With that in mind, what are you left with after months of events like this?

More than likely, with very little hope for lots of high-quality sales. Maybe you’ll get a few small jobs and that’s better than nothing. But is it putting you on the fast-track to earn the income you want?

There is actually a third category of people who attend these events… the people who show up for the first time, quickly evaluate that the other two categories of attendees aren’t what they need to be successful, and never return. It’s not that they’re anti-social or snobs. They’re just very clear on what they’re after will only stick around if there is sufficient value for them.

Let’s consider a better way to network.

I mentioned before that my chamber had a membership that ranged from solo businesses like myself to big name companies with thousands of employees. While those large companies weren’t represented at the monthly networking event, there was another chamber function where you could find them: the Board of Directors.

My local chamber board of directors included members from city government, Boeing, local banks, the local naval station, Comcast, one of the leading health and hygiene companies in the world, the area hospital, the local public utilities district… the list of names is a Who’s Who of important people and companies in the community.

These were the people I needed to be talking to! But while my small business colleagues and I were eating a breakfast of questionable origin, the Who’s Who group was either already hard at work or serving on boards and committees with other high-powered people.

Sadly, in my own case, I didn’t wise up to this soon enough and squandered some great opportunities. And perhaps your chamber isn’t such a hotspot for big business. Even more important, your chances of getting on a high-power board of directors might be slim.

But here’s the important take-away: To network efficiently and to land projects that will help you reach your financial goals, you need to be where your best clients are. My guess is they’re not sitting next to you at a chamber breakfast once a month.

Earlier I asked the question: If I want to land Boeing as a client, for example, what should I be doing? But let’s replace “Boeing” with ” “my ideal clients”. You can define “my ideal clients” however you want, but I define it as clients whose projects will help me reach my targeted income and whose projects I actually enjoy working on.

The basic answer to the question from a networking perspective is that I should be at the same events my ideal clients are at. The answer is not, “continue going to the same events that aren’t gaining me any real business.”

Unfortunately, it’s very easy for a beginner – not only in freelancing but in business as a whole – to naturally gravitate to a local chamber and their networking events. But there’s a whole world of networking opportunities available if you’ll ask questions and keep your eyes open.

Let me give you a couple of examples.

I was in the technology field prior to becoming a freelancer. In the local business journal, I read about a group that got together once a month to talk about technology and stay up-to-date on what each other was up to. The attendees were all folks from local tech companies. The event wasn’t to do what I call “drive-by marketing.” That’s what you see when people network by giving out their card, spewing out their 30 second elevator speech, and then moving on to the next person when they sense you’re not a buyer.

Instead, the technology networking event was primarily to share knowledge and talk about a similar passion. Since it wasn’t a blatant marketing event, people were more relaxed and you had more time to learn about each company and what their needs were. It was also a group that had a better appreciation for the value of marketing material since their products usually cost a lot of money.

A colleague of mine was a website designer. She took things a step further and went out-of-state to an event that taught people how to develop products and then market them online. All these people had one major thing in common… they were going to need a website. As the only website designer in the room, she left the event with not only highly-qualified leads, but a handful of immediate jobs.

My point here is to illustrate that efficient networking happens when you put yourself in the position of meeting people who actually need you or at least are better qualified to need you. That often means digging a little deeper, or traveling a little further, to find these events.

It also requires you to think a little more creatively. Not everything is going to say, “Networking Event.” Maybe it’s a free talk about trade issues for importers and exporters. Maybe it’s a seminar for CEOs. Speaking of seminars, you might check out SeminarInformation.com. Maybe you’ll find something there, maybe you won’t. But it’s part of the process of researching what else is available to you beyond the obvious.

Note: As I mentioned last month, this is my 100th blog post and the blog’s second anniversary. Thanks for reading!

(Almost a year after I originally wrote this article, something happened that prompted a follow-up. You can read that here: Chamber of Commerce Networking Events Are A Waste Of Your Time, Part 2.)