I am in a Networking Group in my community and it consists of around 40 Business Professionals from all different fields. Basically, the rules of the group are this: 1 person from each category may join the group and we agree that if someone needs one of the products or services offered, that we will try to use one of the group members. I joined our local networking group back in October, and joined under the Hotel Category as I am representing the hotel that I manage. The networking group is great because if someone in the group has a need for hotel rooms for business or family they call me and they are sure to get a great rate. Until recently, I had only used members of the group a handful of times but last month when our hotel was inspected we were told that we had to purchase new mattresses to meet the new Standards. So, my immediate thought was that I would contact the guy in the group who sells mattresses. I contacted him as well as several other people locally and finally got what I thought were some great bids. We purchased 82 Queen and 51 King Simmons BeautyRest Mattresses. Well, let me tell you the group works. Dan was able to get me a deal that obviously had very little markup. I convinced my owner that we should purchase the mattresses through him even though the price was higher than some of the other mattresses we got quotes on(quality was better). Anyway, to make a long story short I purchased $44,000 worth of mattresses and as a Thank You Dan gave me a free mattress for my new house. Now, when I placed the order I had no idea that he would do anything like that but he called me last week after the mattresses were delivered and said that he had a free mattress for me because he was so appreciative of the order. In addition, to getting the mattresses for the hotel I used several of the members for other things as well. I had my house professionally cleaned by the cleaning company in the group, I am getting my moving done for 1/2 what I would have paid with anyone else and there are several other services that I am looking into. This type of group WORKS, even if it is an online group. We all have a need for things on a regular basis, and I don't know about you but I don't like buying from people that I don't know anything about. Whether you are a Mary Kay consultant, a Pampered Chef consultant or a consultant with any of the many work at home opportunities, you may want to consider joining the Work At Home networking group. I put this group together and I think we can really have some fun with it and hopefully make some great new contacts. If all else fails, it is FREE ADVERTISING for your business.
If you decide that you want to join, please put what category you would like to be in your comments. Let me know what you think about Networking Groups, if you've ever used them... Thoughts...Concerns...
1 comment:
What a tremendous idea you had in creating your networking group! Obviously it's been a great asset to you...Kudos!
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