Network THIS!

Sometimes it seems like half the articles I read in the business section, half the business blogs, half the business books that come into the Bookmark are about "networking" or some variation of it.

While in theory, I love the idea, in practice I've found it mostly useless.

Never mind that 9/10ths of 'networking' is code for selling advertising, or a marketing campaign, or a web design, blah, blah, blah.

Never mind that 9/10th of what is left of 'networking' after you remove the shills is about joining a 'club' or 'membership.'

The tiny bit that is left, which might be useful -- the free exchange of information and contacts and advice among equals -- rarely exists in the real world.

Let me give you what I think is a great example, that happened yesterday.

I was in my store when I got a call from another downtown business owner. She had heard that I was keeping tabs on the downtown rents. Well, obviously, she was mistaking my Openings and Closings List for some kind of inside information. But she was wanting to renegotiate her lease and she wanted to know what the 'going rate' was....

Just try to find out rents, folks. I don't think it's possible. It's not in the interests of the landlords to tell us, and the other business owners....? Forget it. Top Secret Information.

Why? What am I going to do, abrogate my lease, go to their landlord and offer more money? Wouldn't it make more sense for us all to know what everyone else is paying so we can judge whether our rents are fair and in line?

Forget about it. I swear sometimes that if you asked the average business owner if it was day or night, they'd get back to you on it.

Anyway, I informed her that I only knew my own rent, and only rumors of what others were paying, which she should take with a grain of salt, and that I wouldn't give her any names. But I told her my rent.

Later in the conversation, I asked her what rent she was paying and what was she hoping to change it to.

"Ah......well......I.....would.....have to go look up my lease, and.....I don't know....."

I politely told her I had a customer, and hung up.

That conversation in a nutshell is what happens almost every time I talk to another business owner.

Now....I give out information freely. I've been in business for 26 years now, and I'm doing better than ever. Just about every other canny, savvy, closed-mouthed owner I knew in the first 15 years has gone out of business. Usually proclaiming the week before, "We're doing Great!"

Whatever.

I gave up long ago. Really.

I glean what I can from the media. I try to make sure that I'm not too far outside the norms in what I'm paying for stuff. But mostly, I go the loner route and decide for myself whether it works or not.

Let me tell you another story.

I belong to a professional bulletin board for comic store owners. Now there are about 3000 comic shops in America. About 300 have joined this very, very useful site. Of those 300 members, about 30 of them actually freely exchange information and advice.

1%.

That's probably about normal.

But......get this.......if you were to make a list of the top 50 performing comic shops in American, I'd be willing to bet that at least 20 of the 30 members who freely give advice and information are on that list.

That's no accident. These are the thinkers. They've figured out that information can't hurt them, and can only help them.

I find most of these networking groups to be a complete waste of time.

Others may find them useful. Maybe they get together when I'm not looking and freely give each other information. I kind of doubt it, but it's possible. So more power to them.

But unless you're willing to really get down to the real nitty gritty stuff, the stuff that matters -- and not fluff about logo's and signs and slogans and advertising and other useless junk, I'm not interested.