The Do-It-Yourself Network | Small business owners, executives choose new groups to make connections
As the owner of a Lunenburg-based employee benefits brokerage, Nathan Therrien needs to network. In Central Massachusetts, he could have chosen to attend a range of networking events run by local chambers of commerce and limited-membership organizations like BNI International or joined LinkedIn and Facebook groups.
Therrien chose a different route. He started his own group called MetroWest Networking.
In recent years, several organizations focused simply on networking, without the educational or advocacy functions of chambers, have sprung up in Central Massachusetts. But leaders of all sorts of groups say there seems to be enough interest in networking to go around.
Freestyle Connections
Since March, MetroWest Networking has been meeting the second Monday of each month. Therrien said the event generally draws 50 or 60 people to Molly Malone’s restaurant at the Sheraton Framingham Hotel. There’s no admission charge, and the restaurant throws the group a few free chicken wings in exchange for bringing some welcome Monday-night business.
“What did it cost me? Those little stickies that you put on your lapels to let people know who you are,” he said.
Therrien’s happy to draw people together, and was thrilled when he found out that one of his attendees found a job through the event. But the main focus remains drumming up business for himself — by the time he hands out everyone’s name tags and helps newcomers break into the group, he knows everyone in the room and has a mental list of the people he could help himself by talking to.
Therrien’s model in starting the group was Dan Edmonds, the owner of Networked Events, who holds regular meetings in Foxborough, where he’s based, and in Worcester, Lexington and Boston. Edmonds’ approach is a bit less casual — he charges for his gatherings, which he says usually draw more than 100 people, and he says hosting them now represents about half his work life.
Still, the Networked Events meet-ups themselves are informal, with little for guests to do but chat and grab a drink or a bite to eat. They’re also generally open to everyone, though Edmonds does bar job-seekers from the Boston gatherings.
Playing By The Rules
If Therrien and Edmonds’ events are reminiscent of a chamber of commerce Business After Hours, other local groups are more like BNI, with small, selective, non-competing memberships.
BNI has several local chapters, including Professional Business Builders in Worcester. It’s pricey — chapter President Scott Galbraith says dues are $365 a year, plus a $40 quarterly chapter fee.
“What you get for that is a structure of not just putting people in a room, but there’s a model for making sure the chapter passes business,” he said.
Galbraith said the chapter closely tracks the value of the referrals its 37 members bring to each other — more than $3 million last year — and if anyone isn’t producing they may not get to keep their chair. There’s just one spot for an accountant or a web designer, and the group wants it to go to the person who can help other members the most.
The two-year-old 495 Business Network in Marlborough is structured much like a BNI group, but there are no dues. Members are in accounting, insurance and legal firms and others serving big technology companies.
“BNI is the local copy store and florist,” said the group’s founder, Rock Griffin. “This is much higher level.”
Another variation on the limited-membership, high-accountability group is Fitchburg Business Networking Group. Member Michelle Rattanavong said it’s cheaper than BNI at $100 a year, and its 40 members show up religiously for its meetings twice a month.
“It’s a really dedicated group of business professionals,” she said.
Multiple Allegiances
As leasing and marketing manager at Geronimo Properties in Leominster, Rattanavong represents her tenants in the North Central Massachusetts business community. Besides the Fitchburg group, she’s on the board of the Leominster Small Business Association, a one-year-old group she refers to as a mini-chamber, and she also belongs to several actual chambers. She says the various groups are each valuable in their own way.
In fact, most networking group leaders seem to feel little competition with each other, perhaps because there’s more demand for networking opportunities these days than a few years ago.
Cynthia J. Skowyra, director of programs and events at the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce, said that while chamber membership has taken a hit during the recession, attendance at chamber networking events is up as companies push harder to drum up business.
“I think when businesses are doing well we’ll have lighter attendance,” she said.
Griffin, of the 495 group, said he’s seen the importance of networking increase steadily over the past decade.
“Ten years ago, it was easier to get somebody on the telephone and cold call,” he said. “Now there are so many gatekeepers to the top people that it’s all relational selling.”
If networking groups are springing up faster than in the past, they’re also not always particularly stable. For instance, before starting MetroWest Networking, Therrien tried forming a North Central Massachusetts group, but quit holding meetings after getting few attendees.
Still, especially with LinkedIn, Facebook and other online tools making it easy to corral people together, there’s no reason there can’t be as many groups as people are interested in creating.
“Anyone can do it,” Therrien said. “Literally anyone can do it. It’s not tough.”
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