There’s an old expression – the early bird gets the worm.
Judging by the crowd of local Nanaimo business owners who arrived before 7:30AM on Wednesday, for the latest ‘Business BEFORE Business’ networking event – hosted by local business J.A. Smith & Associates – there were a LOT of satisfied birds that day!
Nanaimo Does Business BEFORE Business
‘Business BEFORE Business’ is a series of early morning networking events sponsored by the Nanaimo Chamber of Commerce. Members of the local Chamber volunteer to host an open house where people from the local business community can get to know each other better in a casual (albeit heavily caffeinated!) setting.
Unlike some other networking and lead sharing events, the Business Before Business events are less about how many leads you can generate…They’re more about how many new friends can you meet from your local business community! The atmosphere is casual and fun – and often the host business has a few prizes and surprises for all those who come out to support the event.
A Closer Look…Joyce Smith
Joyce Smith, the local business owner and host of this event did a brief overview of her business and talked about how much fun she and her staff have while supporting the Nanaimo business community.
I’ve recently done some SEO keyword consulting for Joyce’s ‘Software as a Service’ (SaaS) line of business. There is a huge opportunity for cloud computing these days and J.A. Smith is leading the way in the Nanaimo market.
But Joyce is enjoying success outside the local market too. They’ve expanded outside Nanaimo, supporting clients as far away as the Yukon Territory!
In fact, J.A. Smith & Associates has been so successful and has grown so much in the last year that Joyce has even lost track of the number of employees she has these days! Congratulations on your success Joyce!
Introducing…Walkabout Clothing
Another nice feature of the Business Before Business meetings is that new members to the Nanaimo Chamber of Commerce are highlighted and often given an impromptu opportunity to advertise their wares – as evidenced in the clip below from new chamber member Rob Powers from Walkabout Clothing.
Local Dive Shop Interested in new trends in Marketing
I also had the pleasure to meet Shirley White from local dive shop Nanaimo Dive Outfitters.
Shirley and I talked about marketing ideas for her business and how social media marketing appears to be a growing trend – even for local Nanaimo businesses.
I’m working on some creative marketing ideas for Shirley – which just goes to show the value of ‘old school’, in-person networking events. But it also confirms there’s a need and an opportunity for social media marketing professionals to leverage their experience within their local business community.
Business AFTER Business
Now for those who prefer to do their networking after the sun goes down, the Nanaimo Chamber of Commerce has you covered there as well…
They also sponsor a ‘Business AFTER Business’ networking series where the fun begins after five!
In fact, Rate Miser Mortgage Advisors is hosting the next Business After Business meeting at the Tabu Lounge on Feb. 25th. I’ve never visited Tabu before so I look forward to finding out about a new Nanaimo hot spot while at the same time meeting some new friends like my fellow Internet Markerter Paul Holmes who is coming up from Victoria (and who has already done a rousing presentation to the Nanaimo Chamber of Commerce regarding the value of social media marketing for local business).
So, I’ll be at Tabu – will you?
Send me a Tweet, friend me on Facebook, link in or leave a comment below to connect before the meeting!
Cheers!
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Don,
However, I had to leave a comment to say what a great way this is for you to meet the local businesses who could use your work. I have no idea if my local town council does anything similar but once I get my domain all tidied up and ready (ish – who’s ever totally ready?!) I’m going to find out.
I won’t be at Tabu as I can’t justify the travel costs
Thanks Don! You’ve really helped me get my head round ideas. I look forward to sharing some of my success stories before the year is up
Eleanor
Eleanor Edwards @ UK Charity GiveABrick´s last blog ..1 Minute Motivator: Think of Abraham Lincoln
Thanks Eleanor!
I saw your comment in my other post about you getting the Developer version of Thesis. I’m excited for you as well – it sounds like you are doing right (hahah!). I hear that you can buy “skins” for Thesis as well, so that you can use thesis theme but give it a colour and graphics scheme using the “skin”.
Anyway, good fortune with your new venture too. Feel free to commiserate anytime
- Don
It’s good that these businesses are getting to know each other.
On the other hand, I am wondering what effect on business these kinds of meetings have. I’ve belonged to chambers, and can’t say that I’ve recognized one customer ever resulting from my association with them.
Perhaps it would be good to talk about this.
The reason is that when businesses are new, every penny is precious. And, Chambers do ask for money from the businessperson.
So, we need to be concerned that at a time when government is asking for so much in the way of overhead, and leased properties are asking for so much in the way of overhead, how can we distinguish a Chamber of this kind as not just another hand out.
Perhaps the Chambers I have been involved with were lame. But, the meetings seem very similar to these.
They asked for membership money, had nice friendly meetings and had no impact on whether a business stayed open or not.
Or do you look at Chambers as a way to give back to the community.
I know, we would have loved to give back to the community. However, after three years in business, and a lot of debt, we had no funds to do that.
Ann
ToysPeriod is a leading online shop specializing in lego sets and model railroad equipment.
I live in Sydney and have also been and joined a number of early breakfast small business associations. I think they are great for normal kinds of businesses, like printers or web developers or lawyers, etc but i found with mine that it didn’t really work and even though the food was always good and the company always witty and enjoyable it was better to have eggs at home.
Nicola – Divorce Coach´s last blog ..Making Daily Reading Time Possible
Don, first visit here (coming from EJ), and I have to say I *really* like how you’re engaging your community. I believe this is the future of news for smaller towns.
Dave Doolin´s last blog ..Saturday Morning Surfing: How’s Your Blog Traffic Lately?
Hey, thanks Dave!
Since writing this post I’ve been to 2 more local Nanaimo networking events – one with the local Real Estate Board and another with the Chamber of Commerce.
In each case, it is INCREDIBLE to see the level of “curiosity” from local businesses about social media and how/if it can be leveraged for their business.
In other words, there’s a terrific opportunity to introduce the power of social media marketing to a large demographic, who also happen to be real people you can connect with in the real world!
I think that is a ‘perfect storm’ of opportunity and an answer to the millio ndollar question of “how can you make money blogging?”. The answer being, “Show your local business community how to do it too!”
Thanks for your comment Dave. I’ve been to your blog several times – I like your style – very Frank Kerns-ish!
Thanks to Extreme John for the link!
- Don
Don Power´s last blog ..Blogging for Business? Top 3 Questions to ask BEFORE you begin