Here are 10 Very Good Reasons…

1. It has been found that the most productive networking occurs in groups of 25-30 members. The size of BabbleBee networking groups, or hives, are 30 members to provide more effective networking. Our hives are also formed based on their members’ company type and desired prospects for more productive networking and lead exchanges.

2. The BabbleBee membership fee of $240.00 provides substantially more value than our competitors. We offer an online vehicle for networking, smaller, intimate networking groups, the BabbleBucks program, and a par time income opportunity through our Queen/King Bee program.

3. You will have your account online, where you can track your leads, referrals, and BabbleBucks seamlessly and quickly.

4. You will also have e-mail contact with your entire hive, so that you can e-mail them as a resource and communicate promotions. Furthermore, you have the opportunity to e-mail our entire colony for a nominal one time charge.

5. We reward members financially for bringing in new members to BabbleBee.

6. We will provide cooperative advertising and will also get our members discounts for office supplies, services, and anything else that we feel may benefit them in building their business.

7. Members, who are opted in to our BabbleBucks program, may receive referral fees from leads that they give to other members that are opted in. These referral fees are deposited into the referring member’s BabbleBucks accounts and can be used at any other member’s business for services. Members can also use their BabbleBucks for membership to BabbleBee or any of our other services, such as online business directory listings, press releases, Web hosting, etc. Members can redeem their bucks for cash.

8. We offer person to person networking meetings, which are held at least twice per month. In the future, we will offer virtual networking for those who can’t physically attend meetings.

9. You normally have to pay to promote your business. At BabbleBee, you can earn money through our BabbleBucks program and get paid while you promote your business. You do not have this opportunity with any other networking group!

10. Business owners have a rapid return on investment at BabbleBee. With only a few referrals from members, you will be able to pay for our affordable membership, and the value will continue long afterwards. For instance, if a member makes $50 in profit per sale, and that member receives only 5 referrals per year from BabbleBee that result in a sale, that person’s membership has paid for itself. Plus, that member still gets recurring sales and revenues from the members sold, and the referrals continue exponentially.

BabbleBee is a company that is devoted to helping its members grow their businesses through word-of mouth and online advertising. If you are looking for a way to increase your sales and grow your business, BabbleBee offers cost-effective and productive ways to promote your company and its offerings.

Anyone that is looking for an innovative and more successful way to network to grow their business should try BabbleBee!

We currently have networking groups, or hives, formed in Chicago, Rockford, Madison, Milwaukee, and surrounding areas. However, our service is available anywhere nationally, and if you are interested in forming or joining a hive in any market than the ones mentioned, please contact vkielar@babblebee.com.

We are a networking community, online directory, and business resource marketplace.

The BabbleBee Networking community is members that are assembled into small networking groups, consisting of 30 members, called "hives". Six networking hives form a colony. All the colonies make up the greater Babblebee networking colony and community.

A hive is a networking group comprised of a maximum of 30 members with interrelated professions, who meet regularly in person, and often online, to exchange leads and help each other grow their businesses.

We have six different, standard hive types: Residential Service Providers, Personal Service Providers, Wedding Service Providers, Professional Service Providers, and Heath and Wellness Providers.

Each hive type has many recommended professions for its lead exchange group. We refer to the suggested professions as classifications. Please refer to our Business Classification Codes to see the hive categories and various recommended business professions for each type.

Members select a hive to join based on their own profession/business and the other people with whom they are interested in networking and exchanging leads. Our hives are constructed with the goal to have members with symbiotic professional relationships- relationships of mutual benefit or dependence, or interrelated businesses- that will foster the opportunity for many leads to be exchanged.

A colony is the ultimate networking community, comprised of each of the six hive types, or six hives total, with the maximum 30 networking members in each of the six different hives.

Hives typically meet a minimum of twice a month. At least two times a year, the Queen/King Bee will assemble a networking event for her or his entire colony. In addition, two times per year, a Queen/King Bee coordinates a networking event with her colony and the greater BabbleBee colony – a networking event for all BabbleBee members.

A Queen/King Bee is the person responsible for forming hives or a colony, for increasing membership to their hives or colony, and for overseeing the activity of their hives or colony. Please refer to our Queen/King Bee Program overview for more information on the Queen/King Bee's responsibilities, or if you are interested in becoming a Queen/King Bee.

A prospective member must join a hive to become part of our networking community. To join a hive, a prospective member must use our Networking Group search engine to find a hive that he or she is interested in joining, request to Bee-Invited to attend the selected hive's meeting, and attend two trial meetings as a hive guest. After attending two trial meetings, the selected hive's Queen/King bee will determine if a prospective member may join his or hive as a permanent member.

A Bee-Invite is a personal invitation from BabbleBee to attend a networking meeting, for the hive of your interest, as our guest.

To Bee-Invited and attend a hive’s networking meeting in your community as our guest, you must first be registered on our website. Being registered, will allow you to search for networking hives in your area and to see active companies in those hives. The search results will assist you in determining the specific hive that you are interested in joining and whose meeting you would like to Bee-Invited to attend as a guest.

You may attend two meetings without becoming a member to determine if you are interested in joining as a networking partner.

Hives meet twice a month in person and occasionally collaborate online through message boards and chat areas, which are provided on each hive’s own administrative page.

The in person meetings are informal and are typically conducted at breakfast, at lunch, or after hours. Prospective members should choose a hive based on their preferred meeting times. Hive schedules are available in the networking group search results.

The attire is business casual or business professional. Members typically are expected to give a 1-2 minute informal talk about their business. After all members have had their individual speaking time, the group has an open format for exchanging information and leads.

You may attend two meetings as a guest before deciding to join. All members are encouraged to bring guests to the meetings. All guests must be registered and request to Bee-Invited before attending.

Networking is an essential key to any business’s success.

BabbleBee is different from other traditional networking companies. We are a hybrid online and traditional networking company.

Traditional networking does not work for everyone. We have found and have heard the following concerns with traditional networking:

• Many business people are strong at their chosen profession, but do not have strengths at sales, marketing, and networking. These people understand the importance of networking, and attend networking events, but find them to be overwhelming without having networking skills mastered. They deserve to have customers, as they are strong service providers, but lose deserved opportunities due to their lack of networking ability.
  
  
• In a networking event with a large group of people, only a handful may be relevant contacts, and it is often difficult to seek out and connect with this select group. Many business people attend the larger events only to be frustrated with their lack of results.
  
  
• Many business people pay fees to join networking groups, but either are unable to attend the events, or do not find success at them. They do not see a return on investment from joining.
  
  
• After spending a long day at the office, it is difficult for a business person to then go to a networking event, and still balance his or her family, friends, and personal life.
  
  
• Members of traditional networking groups that are good at networking provide many referrals to other members. These referrals are often not reciprocated and good networkers frequently are not rewarded.
  
  

With the advent of the internet, BabbleBee believes that we have found a solution to make networking a more positive and simpler experience by facilitating networking using online tools. As a BabbleBee member,

• You can begin networking online by pointing and clicking!
  
  
• You will be networking with smaller, intimate groups!
  
  
• You select the hive that you want to join, or the contacts that you want to network with, instead of being forced into a group of people that may not benefit your business.
  
  
• You can be involved in a networking hive, where the members are placed together based on symbiotic relationships—services that complement one another—so that leads are more easily and readily exchanged.
  
  
• You can spend less time networking and more time at your chosen profession!
  
  
• You can find and connect with more contacts online than in a traditional setting!
  
  
• Members are able to participate in our BabbleBucks Program. We offer a financial incentive and reward to provide referrals. When you give a referral to a member, who is opted in to our BabbleBucks program, and that referral results in a sale or service, the member receiving the referral will pay a referral fee, which is logged into the referring member’s BabbleBucks Account. This program creates incentives for members to give you more referrals resulting in your seeing more business, and you are rewarded for providing other members with referrals resulting in extra spare cash for your own business!
  
  
• Do business with those that do business with you!
  
  
• If you are a good networker, and choose to be a networking hive leader, or King or Queen Bee, you have an income opportunity part time through BabbleBee to be compensated doing what you like to do and are good at doing—networking—while also building your own business.

Our BabbleBucks program is dedicated to rewarding members of our networking groups for referrals that they give to other members.

You must be a member of the BabbleBee networking community to participate in the BabbleBucks Program. BabbleBee members may opt-in or opt-out of this service at any time during their membership.

Members, who opt-in to the BabbleBucks Program, agree to pay a referral fee of a minimum of $15.00 or 10% of the gross revenue of the sale or service (whichever amount is greater) to any referring member who has given them a lead that results in a sale or service of over $25.00. Members of our Networking Community are required to submit and process all leads online using BabbleBee's online lead form. Upon the completion date of the sale or service, BabbleBucks Program Members agree to complete BabbleBee's lead form, submit the amount of the sale or service gross revenue, and pay the fee due into the referring member's account.

When members refer a lead to another member that results in a sale and have received their associated referral fees, or BabbleBucks, in their account, they may redeem their BabbleBucks for cash or use their BabbleBucks towards other members' services.

A member that is opted-out of the BabbleBucks program may still exchange leads with other members, participate in all aspects of their hive activity, and receive all other benefits of the networking community. Members that are opted out are neither required to pay referral fees nor eligible to receive associated referrals fees on their leads. BabbleBee still tracks any leads that are exchanged by members that are opted-out and collects any referral fees from members that are opted-in that would owe referral fees to members that are opted-out. Fees collected by BabbleBee on behalf of opted-out members are deposited into a BabbleBee General Administrative Fund and are used towards member incentives. Members may view other members' status in the BabbleBucks program online.

Networking is the most effective way to promote your own business. With our BabbleBucks program, you not only get the benefit of increasing your revenue and growing your business through getting leads from other members, but you also get compensation for networking!

In most other networking organizations, members do not receive any referral fees, but simply receive the benefit of receiving a lead.

At BabbleBee, we want to encourage our members to try other member's services and to tell other people that they know to try our member's services as well. Our goal is to build a strong networking community by rewarding our members for referring other members, so that all of our members have a mutually rewarding exchange.

This program creates incentives for members to give you more referrals- resulting in your seeing more business, and you are rewarded for providing other members with referrals - resulting in extra spare cash for your own business!

You must be a member of the BabbleBee networking community to participate in the BabbleBucks program. A prospective member must join a hive to become part of our networking community.

Our Online Directory, is a search engine for consumers, or other business members, that are searching for a business provider.

BabbleBee online is growing to be one of the top resources for consumers to search for a business provider, as our site offers a consumer the capability to view a provider profile, a virtual presentation, an electronic brochure, and other consumer's feedback.

Many online directories simply display a business’s contact information. We provide more detailed information, so that members may quickly screen providers. For members who don’t have Web sites, we can provide their Web presence. For members that do have Web sites, we increase traffic to your site and increase your odds of bringing customers to it!

Our feedback section assists the consumer in qualifying and selecting a business provider easier and faster, so consumers rely upon our website as being their primary business finder source.

Any business owner that is part of our networking community receives feedback from the customer for services performed. This feedback allows consumers to choose a business from our site with some idea as to how they have performed in the past. It also offers consumers who use a BabbleBee provider the opportunity to voice their opinion on a provider's service.

Help your potential customers find you online and tell them why they should use you, once they have found you!

The potential reasons that customers are not finding you may be:

• Many small to medium businesses do not have a large advertising budget, so it is difficult to use the various mediums to reach their customers, such as impressive phone book ads, billboards, publication ads, and search engine advertising.
  
  
• Many small to medium businesses still do not have a website, or if they do, are still not being found by the search engines. Most consumers now do the majority of their shopping, including shopping for providers, online. Without spending a considerable amount of money ramping up your website traffic, your customers may not find you online.
  
  
• Many small to medium businesses have a limited number of employees and many of the employees perform multiple functions due to budget constraints. Sales or marketing may not be in the skill set of the employee resource pool available, so ads that are placed may not have the impact desired. Furthermore, those employees have to focus on their own position within the company and often do not have the time to create and construct ads.
  
  
• As a smaller or medium business, especially in a start-up phase, you may not have a large client base or referral network. Your word-of-mouth advertising is limited, and you seek a way to spread the word about your business and build your brand.
  
  
• You may have unsatisfied clients, and not be aware that they are dissatisfied, as you have had neither the opportunity nor the budget to survey them. These clients may be spreading the wrong word about your business and negatively impacting your revenue. You may have been able to transition the dissatisfied client to a satisfied one, if you had only known about their perception. You cannot afford any negative advertisement.
  
  

Our Online Directory has standardized forms that allow you to create and display a business profile with ease, allow you to be found easily online with a minimal investment, and allow your clients to relay their feedback to you promptly, so that you can immediately monitor their satisfaction.

If you are a BabbleBee member and are listed in our online directory, consumers and other members will be able to:

• Search for your business online by location, category, or name. Your business will be featured in our search results.
  
  
• Review your business profile and be advised of the benefits of selecting your business. You will be able to construct a business profile that allows you to relay this message to them. You write the profile by filling out a simple, standard form. BabbleBee offers assistance in writing this profile, if you need it.
  
  
• Download a printable online brochure. Your customers will have a fast way of accessing your marketing material, which allows you to reach customers easier. If you do not have a brochure currently, BabbleBee can help you create one.
  
  
• Contact you online. They can be directed to your website, if you have one. If not, we can help you create a Web content page at BabbleBee.com. You can begin or increase your web presence.
  
  
• Register feedback about your service. Get instant feedback from consumers to gauge your customer’s satisfaction.
  

• We offer a search engine to find business providers in your area.
  
  
• If you are a business provider, we can help your customers find you.
  
  
• Our directory results not only produce business contact information, but also display business providers’ profiles, feedback left by customers, and company literature, if it has been posted.
  
  
• We track feedback left from our member’s customers. You can view this feedback to get an idea of how a business provider has performed in the past to assist you in evaluating possible providers.
  
  
• You have the ability to enter feedback on providers, which makes providers uphold a higher standard and gives you the opportunity to voice your opinion on their service.