Oakville Networking Group

As you know, the Oakville Networking group is run by an executive committee consisting of 5 members, one of which is the founder of the group, Manuela Coelho. The 4 other members are elected on the first meeting in January each year.

In January, Trevor Folgering, Jason Stevens, Liz Boydell and Camilla Nielsen were elected to run the group on a daily basis. Over the past months Trevor and last week Jason (too much work and no time) have left the group leaving only Liz and Camilla to do the job.

On the upcoming meeting Friday, October 2nd we will have to choose to either

1. Select a new Executive Committee, 4 members and 2 substitutes for a period of 15 months running till the first meeting in January 2011,
   or
2. Select 2 new members to replace Jason and Trevor, + 2 substitutes for a period of 3 months running till the first meeting in January 2010, and then have another election in January. These new members may be re-elected in January.

Therefore, please consider whether YOU would like to take charge and have influence on the way the group is run by becoming a member of the Executive Committee.

Kind regards,

The executive committee

Boris Mahovac R.G.D.

Sign up for my next Contacts2Clients Business Seminar

Let's connect:

October 2: Hiliary Jewer; Mukesh Tanna
October 16: Boris Mahovac; Jackie Connely
October 30: Verginiya Kechelieva; Camilla Nielsen
November 13: Mike Rocha; open

If you cannot make it for the meeting you signed up for, make sure to swop with another member on the list. No shows count as a presentation made.

If you have not yet presented, please contact the meeting chair at the next meeting.

I network a lot. I attend meetings both within groups and over coffee with individuals. I look for business development opportunities for my own business Executive Sales Support and also for opportunities to help my network through my expertise, or passing along opportunities I think might be a fit for others.

One of my network groups is HAPPEN in Mississauga, Halton and Peel Professional Executive Network. There are many wonderful professionals “in transition” in HAPPEN. They are a great group that offers help while they are looking themselves and also after they land. One member, in particular, who helped me through his public relations efforts, is Hugh Black from HMB Communications Group. Contact hughblack at cogeco.ca.

Within HAPPEN, conversations are around finding full time employment and within my business networking groups, the conversations are around finding new business development opportunities. Over the past months, I have noticed a difference emerging between the two groups. On one hand full time traditional employment seems to be going the way of the dinosaur and on the other hand, the members of the small business group are as busy or busier than before Christmas.

Yesterday, all the random pieces of networking came together. I had been networking with Hugh Black, putting forward my point of view that people were choosing self employment,  then the new Canadian statistics for unemployment in April 2009 showed that unemployment stayed the same and there was an increase in the self employed numbers.

As a result of Hugh Black’s efforts; I was interviewed as an example of someone who had successfully transferred their skills and started their own business,  Executive Sales Support. My business helps sales and business professionals get out of the office to see more clients and close deals. As a result of this interview, I was mentioned in an article on the front page of The Toronto Star’s Business section on Saturday May 9, 2009.

Yahoo, networking pays off for business development!

If you want to network with me I have a linked in profile. I look forward to helping you.

Here is the link to the article “Self-employment: The ‘do-it-yourself recovery’ Jobs increased last month, largely through people embracing self employment. The Toronto Star’s Business section on Saturday May 9, 2009.

For our next meeting, March 6, we will be relocating to the room behind the bar, vis-a-vis the entrance to the Hamptons restaurant.

The management of the hotel has advised us that we cannot continue using the larger conference room without paying $100 extra.

We will therefore try to see how the new room is going to work for us, because it has a different layout of tables – they are organized as individual tables which seat four people. The room capacity is about 30-35 which should be fine for our present needs.

I just added a cool feature on our blog: now you can follow comments via RSS. Previously, you were only able to get new articles and other blog posts, but not the comments members make on an individual post.

If you don’t use RSS, you can still get updates on individual blog posts by email. To do this simply check the box where it says “Send me new comments via e-mail.”

See attached image.

BTW, in order to see the comments you must either a) click on a blog post title or b) “comments” link right next to the post author’s name, just below the blog post title.

Join the conversation, or just listen in – the tools are there, for you.

If there’s a snowstorm on Friday, should we cancel the meeting? Please comment.

Looks like we should be OK – let’s party!

Consider the members of our networking group as your extended sales team: We are here to promote you and your business, find leads for you, and ultimately, refer our clients, customers, friends, associates and neighbours to you.

I’d like to propose that we – and it should be an option, not a requirement – offer some sort of incentive to our members if they buy something from us themselves. This incentive can be in a form of:

• straight discount: e.g. 10% on all orders
• added value: free added service or product which normally sells separately
• a free Chapters gift card as a thank-you

For my part, I am happy to offer the following to all our members:

• a straight 10% discount on all email marketing services.
• if you sign up with one of my preferred Email Service Providers, such as ConstantContact, or MadMimi I will throw in a free ESP account set up – a value of US$199
• and finally, you will be paying in Canadian dollars, while all my other clients pay in US currency, which currently translates to a 20% discount!

Please comment and add your own thoughts, and ways that you have decided to “award” our members, if any.

I would like your comments on this NEW version of the business card/invitation I think would be a good idea to have for our networking group. Please see the discussion on the first version.

• It’s easy to promote our group
• Our group looks professional by having its own card
• If we’re promoting this group as being different, then having a card would definitely contribute to the idea.
• Each member can buy 100 cards for $2, or some other amount we can agree on.
• Card would be printed full-colour on both sides, with AQ coating (a semi-gloss, writable surface)

This is the front of the card:

This is the NEW back:

Please comment, by filling out the comment form below.

A number of members have expressed their view on the subject of exclusive vs. open membership categories. The majority still prefers to keep their business categories exclusive – meaning that we can only accept one business per category, e.g. one mortgage broker, one insurance agent, etc.

However, one of our guests at the last meeting suggested a compromise solution, which would, I my humble opinion, satisfy both those ‘for’ and ‘against’ exclusive membership.

Here it is: why not leave it to each member to decide if his or her business category should be open or closed!?

Since some members feel that their ‘competition’ can bring more to them and the group, they would like to be able to invite people in the same, or closely related, business category to join our group.

What do you think? Please comment bellow.

If you have any other comments on our new membership ‘rules and regulations’ please feel free to address them here as well.

We’re trying to create a unique group and your input really counts!

Thanks.

I would like your comments on this business card I think would be a good idea to have for our networking group.

My reasons to have this:

• It’s easy to promote our group
• Our group looks more professional by having its own business card
• If we’re promoting this group as being different, then having a card would definitely contribute to the idea.
• Each members can buy 100 cards for $2, or some other amount we can agree on.
• Card would be printed full-colour on both sides, with AQ coating (a semi-gloss, writable surface)

This is the front of the card:

This is the back:

This is the NEW back:

Please comment, by filling out the comment form below.