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Pondspectives with Mike

Networking in a Down Economy Makes Sense

By Mike Garcia

As a pond and water garden contractor, the seeds we plant today will come to fruition in the near future. The estimates you make today will be the work you do in 1 to 3 months. Are you preparing for the winter slowdown now?

One pond contractor has taken his preparation to a new level by forming a professional networking event for pond and water garden contractors. Eric Triplett, owner of The Pond Digger, created the Pond Contractor's Focus Group. The Group's focus is business fundamentals.

Eric will donate his Yucaipa, Calif., headquarters for the Pond Contractor's Focus Group's regular two-hour meetings on the second Saturday of every month. The networking events will include roundtable discussions designed to give pond and water garden contractors a chance to collaborate with other pond and landscape contractors about how to grow their businesses.

RSVPs are not required, but to keep the Pond Contractor's Focus Group on track, Triplett included some ground rules: No phones allowed! Topics for the Pond Contractor's Focus Group will include marketing, bidding, business and more, and participants can expect product reviews, manufacturer discounts, gift certificates, guest speakers and more at the monthly events.

Recently I was invited to a networking group with a very aggressive nature. The networking group required attendance every Tuesday morning attendance, or I was out. It would cost about $700 a year to join the networking group, and there was no guarantee that I would get leads. Even though it was called a networking group, the emphasis was on getting leads. Group members would refer people to me and vice-versa on an exclusive basis.

The entire process made me uncomfortable, especially since I did not know the other members well and could not vouch for their manners or work. I prefer Eric Triplett’s format, as participants are not referring out. Instead, Pond Contractor's Focus Group participants are there to learn how to be better contractors.

Networking in a down economy makes good business sense and leads to increased revenue. Have you put together your own networking group? If so, what did you find successful? If not, are you thing of putting one together?

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Networking in a Down Economy Makes Sense

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Wow Mike you're throwing down text faster than I can read. I always enjoy reading your blogs. Honored to be part of this blog here. Thanks for the mention. Our first Pond Contractor's Focus Group was a nice little gig. We had about 6 companies and 15 people here to discuss the effects of a Marketing Funnel in the pond business. We all have a marketing funnel and it's up to us to maintain it. Keep the business flowing. That was our focus. We all did a napkin business plan just like Steve Jobs would to represent our own marketing funnels and then discussed ways to improve the way things flowed into our business. I know contractors left motivated! It was a good meeting and our next meeting is slated to even better where we focus on efficiency in the work place! We even have a special guest speaker from Sequence Pumps teaching the group about Kaizen Principals! Hope to see you sitting in on one of our meetings in the near future! We won't charge you a thing. in fact I might buy a box of chocolates from you! Let's do this! Eric, Yucaipa, CA Posted: 10/5/2011 3:40:02 PM