One Business, Many Circles

Meet a typical business owner in any town. She runs a printing firm. She is a member of the printers' trade association, because that is where she learns what is changing in her industry. She is a member of the local chamber of commerce, because that is where the town's businesses meet. And she still turns up to her college alumni network, because some friendships outlast every job.

Three associations, three sets of people — and in each one, people who know her, trust her, and at some point will need something printed.

Yet in most cases she is a member of all three and a supplier to none of them. Her business sits outside every circle she belongs to.

Every association you belong to is a separate audience that already trusts you.

Three circles, three different kinds of trust

The circles are not the same, and that is their strength.

• The trade association knows her work. Its members are her peers — sometimes competitors, often subcontractors, and occasionally the customer who needs overflow capacity on a deadline.
• The local chamber knows her as a neighbour. Its members are the shops, firms and offices that need printing every month and would rather use someone round the corner.
• The alumni network knows her as a person. Its members are spread across every profession, and a recommendation there travels on years of friendship.

A single advertisement could not speak to all three. A business that belongs to all three can speak to each in its own way.

A place in every circle

A member's business is not tied to one association. Wherever its owner is an active member, it can take its place:

• In the members-only directory. The business is listed in each association's directory where its owner belongs, so fellow members can find it by what it does. (Why that visibility matters so much is the subject of Business Stays in the Family.)
• With an offer for that circle. From the app, the owner publishes an offer to each association separately — a trade rate for fellow printers, a neighbour's discount for the chamber, something warmer for the alumni. Each offer goes to that association's own review, and nobody sees it until that association has approved it.
• With every sale counted. Members show their digital card at the counter, and each use of an offer is recorded. The owner sees the business members brought across all her circles, with each sale showing which association it came through.

Each association keeps control of what its members see. The owner keeps one business, one set of records, and a clear view of where her trade comes from.

Circles you don't belong to (yet)

Some of the best circles for a business are ones its owner has never joined. A caterer belongs to the chamber, but the doctors' association and the residents' association are full of people who host events.

Belonging to one association earns nothing in another, and it shouldn't. Each association decides who reaches its members. But the door is not closed:

An association's link offers two doors — join as a member, or list your business offers as a partner. A business can come in through the partner door, confirm its phone with a code, agree the partnership, and wait for the association to decide. If it is approved, it offers to that association's members on the same terms as any other partner, reviewed offer by offer. (How partners are introduced and grow is the subject of The Partner Who Isn't a Member Yet.)

What each circle brought

Once each circle has its offer, the owner can see which circles respond — not as a feeling, but from the record of who used what, where.

That changes how a business owner spends her time. A circle that brings steady trade deserves her presence at its meetings and its events. A circle that brings little may need a different offer, or simply a different expectation: the alumni network may never be her biggest source of orders, yet it may bring the most valuable ones.

And for each association, a member who sees business coming through it has one more reason to stay, renew and take part.

Value, party by party

The business owner

Every circle she has joined becomes a place to be found and chosen, each with an offer that suits it — and a clear view of which memberships bring trade.

The members of each circle

Businesses run by people they know, with an offer made for them and approved by their own association.

Each association

Business members who find a practical reason to stay — and a directory and benefits list that grow because members bring their businesses with them.

The wider network

Trust that flows between circles: a business recommended in one association arrives in the next with a reputation already started.

Putting it to work

• For business members: list your business in the app once, then publish an offer to each association you belong to, written for that circle.
• For associations: ask every business-owning member whether their business is listed — many belong to other associations and have never thought of bringing their business into yours.
• Review promptly. A member who publishes an offer and waits weeks for approval will not publish another.
• Share your partner door with businesses that serve your members but don't belong — the caterer, the printer, the pharmacy.
• Once a year, show your business members what came through your association. It is the most persuasive renewal letter you will ever send.

A business owner is never in just one circle. Make sure their business isn't either.