Business Ambassadors Builds a Flourishing E-Business

While Other E-Businesses are Disappearing, This One Continues to Grow

by Lydia Enderle Bell - Scottsdale Airpark News (March 2002)

Business: Business Ambassadors * Web site: www.BusinessAmbassadors.org

While many e-businesses of the '90s seemed created strictly for a quick rush into a booming market in order to grasp instant riches without ever acquiring a valid business structure, Business Ambassadors is one of those that built up its business the old-fashioned way. Instead of following in the footsteps of so many fly-by-night dotcoms, it has been growing slowly but surely since it was founded in 1995.

A business-to-business association, Business Ambassadors has over 14,000 members in the state of Arizona, and has listings of 86,000 businesses from around the nation and a few more thousand around the world in its database (Not Online). The company is located here in Arizona and Washington, DC with more locations in the planning stages. Member companies sell all kinds of services and products, and come in all sizes - from one-person outfits to public companies listed on the stock exchange.

Business Ambassadors provides its members with business information and marketing exposure through its Web site, BusinessAmbassadors.com and its Monthly Business Review newspaper publications. It also focuses on promoting, co-sponsoring and generating activity for members' business events. "We are involved in "forward-marketing" before the events, we provide an actual market presence at the events, and we are an information resource after the events," says M. Kameron Hawkins, Founder of Business Ambassadors LLC, adding that exposure and referrals is what drives the organization. Each month, the Monthly Business Review publishes a calendar of Statewide Business Events organized by its members, and it is up to its members to make contact with each other.

"Ninety plus percent of our clients are geared to assisting other businesses. Any company that works with another business, that provides services or products to existing companies, or uses services or products of other companies, is an ideal candidate for Business Ambassadors, as are all businesses with needs," says Hawkins. "The idea is to be a resource for all businesses, whether new, expanding or relocating."

Membership fees with Business Ambassadors start at $24 a year for a social membership, which entitles the member to a subscription to the Monthly Business Review in their state. A $79 annual fee for one Enhanced Business Listing Membership or a $495 annual fee for any number of locations in a city and a $995 annual fee for any number of locations in a state and a $1,995 annual fee for any number of location around the nation. Membership includes a full "Enhanced Business Listing" on the BusinessAmbassadors.com for the company. National members receive a Banner on the Business Ambassadors Web site 24/7/365.

Members in Arizona receive added exposure in their local city or statewide www.MonthlyBusinessReview.com newspapers as well as on services offered by the company's other affiliates.

Membership listings on the Business Ambassadors Website include a 45-word profile (in a company with two or more divisions, each key professional has a full profile), a 250-word press release summary of the company's services or products, an E-mail and Website link, and other important contact information.

Business Ambassadors provides ongoing exposure for members event for cross-marketing. "Cross-marketing between members results in referrals which are more reliable and of better quality than leads from the phone book or similar sources," says Hawkins, "because a business recommended by someone who is familiar with the business practices and ethics of a company is more confidence inspiring." As of now, the company averages between 7K and 10K visitors a day for its members on their Web site.

Hawkins, who used to own a consulting business before starting Business Ambassadors, says he started the latter because he found that new businesses in the community were often solicited by other businesses, but not provided information that should be readily available to them. "When I started my consulting company, I had no idea what resources existed. Many years later, I'm still finding that many new businesses don"t know what resources are available. They don"t know how to become an LLC and/or incorporate, or how marketing, advertising or networking works the best for them. I got into this because business owners need more than just networking events, they need exposure in the media and on the Internet as well as long lasting relationships and information."

As for future expansion, Hawkins says Business Ambassadors will have representatives in every state in America within the next few years. The company recently opened locations in many other cities around the nation to establish a presence in the community and deliver more "hands-on" service, "because high-tech is only successful when combined with `high-touch'," he says. On a grander scale, Hawkins' goal is to go global, so that businesses around the world can network and establish ongoing exposure and relationships.

For more information please call at 602.235.0104.