Spotlight On: Shoreline East Business Networking Group

You end up with the Shoreline East Business Networking Group. Patch interviewed founders and past presidents of the Chapter, Frank Kolb and David O’Connor, education coordinator Lisa Gresham, as well as current president Dr. Keith Mirante to find out what this fired-up group is all about. 

PATCH: When and why was the group founded?

Kolb: It started in June 2008 with a phone call from Dave O’Connor who has been my financial advisor for years and my friend. He called me out of the blue and said, ‘What do you think about starting a networking group with quality local businesspeople so that we can refer business to one another?' That’s how it started – just that simply. 

PATCH: How many members did you start with?

Kolb: I think we got an initial meeting together with maybe eight to 10 people. Dave and I were the first two and then we called some other colleagues with  trusted professional resources, explained the concept that we had and ran with it from there.

PATCH: How many members do you currently have?

Dr. Mirante: We have 48 to 49 members and one pending application. 

PATCH: How are members recruited?

Dr. Mirante: Members are mainly not even recruited. It’s by people that are referred from current members that we know and trust whereas other groups will solicit to get people to their chapter meetings. We do no advertising for the group; it’s only invited and trusted people that our current members trust. There’s a screening process, an interview process, and background checks are done on everybody.

Kolb: There’s a membership committee that screens, checks the references. We look on the Better Business Bureau website, we Google people, we check them out. We only want to recruit good quality members. It’s important that we have a good screening process.

PATCH: What do you do if you have a number of members in the same field?

O’Connor: That’s a good problem to have and we have had that problem in the past. The way we handle it is a pretty cool thing because we want to keep it competitive and we want to get the best members that we can, but remember we only have one person in each classification. It’s not like Rotary where you can have many financial advisors in one group. We’ve had the problem and it’s a good problem because that means the membership committee gets to choose the best member possible. We also get feedback from the other members of the group – have they used their services, have they experienced anything in the past with them – it’s really the screening process. We want the best fit for our group so it’s always worked and we’ve solved it that way.   

PATCH: Is networking more important than ever?

Gresham: Networking is extremely critical because you need to be able to be creative in finding new ways to get business and that is probably what has come out of the economic struggles that a lot of people feel. The other thing is networking allows you to be able to feel confident in referring quality professionals. Often people ask you if you can recommend somebody. This helps a lot to be able to have a list of people who are the best in their field and to be able to refer them.  Friendships grow out of these professional networks and that’s another benefit.

O’Connor: When we started this group it was 2008. The economy then for Frank’s business then and my business was awful. This group meant a lot to people because it got their minds off the current economy and their eye on the ball; it kept them busy with what they do. The timing was perfect.

PATCH: What are the benefits of joining?

Dr. Mirante: One of the biggest things is that we are a group with 48 to 49 members that have our trust that they are the best in their respective fields. I can have 100 percent confidence that if I refer a patient of mine or friend to a member of chapter, I know they are going to get the absolute best service and am confident with that. I have 48 other people that know my business very well and know why and how people can benefit from my personal business.

Kolb: We’re all here for business and that’s what we founded this on. We have a 70 percent closing ratio over the past three years. The business is what we’re ultimately here for but the friendships that have evolved over this – it’s amazing that you can get so close.

The more time we spend with our colleagues we realize there is a lot of closeness and similarities to people in completely different fields and different ages and different classifications throughout life. It’s amazing how we all blend together so well. We have social parties every three months. We have a good time and we work hard to make this group successful but we also get together to build relationships because at the end of the day you do business with your friends.

Gresham: This group that we have is so incredibly committed and supportive to each other. That’s one of the things that sets us apart from other networking groups – the level of commitment that we all bring every single week.

PATCH: How is this group different from other networking groups?

O’Connor: There are several groups that have started in our area, and a lot of the reason that they’ve started is because of the success that we’ve had. For two reasons, remember that we can only have one classification per group. When they couldn’t get into our group they started their own, so a lot spawned from us. 

It’s really the quality of people that we’ve chosen – that’s what makes our group different. It is the members themselves that make us unique and special; it just comes back to the membership.

One of the things that we decided in the beginning and it continues now with Keith’s leadership is we run it like a business. It has an agenda, it has a leadership team, it is run strictly like a business. We don’t go off on different tangents. It’s business-run and that’s probably why we’ve been so successful at it.

Kolb: This is our third term and the same business model has applied through all three terms.

PATCH: What happens at a typical meeting?

Dr. Mirante: It is absolutely run like a business at each and every meeting. At the beginning part of the meeting all 48 or 49 members are present and at a typical meeting each person has about 30 seconds to share with the group what they do, to teach the current members more about their personal business. Each person will stand up for 30 seconds and tell one another exactly what we do. 

One person is spotlighted each week and will do a 10-minute educational segment, a more in-depth educational segment on their business. Then there’s the testimonial section where, for example, if Frank did work for my friend, I could actually stand up in front of the whole entire group and tell them what Frank was able to accomplish and what he did and why his services are so beneficial.

Gresham: The agenda is always the same; we always follow the same model but the first 15 minutes of the meeting is open networking. All of the members come and will network with each other if there’s something specific they want to discuss about a prospect or a client that they want to refer, they have the opportunity to do that before the meeting. Once the leadership committee is introduced, there’s a short education segment that I do as education coordinator and then we get into the 30-second sales presentations and the 10-minute specific presentation. Someone will sign up for that every week and every week we’ll have a different one.

When you're past the referrals and the testimonials, that’s the part of the meeting that everyone looks forward to the most because that’s where you’re the business but you’re also focusing on the two words “I have”. It’s either “I have a referral for this person” or “I have a testimonial to give about another person.” Then, the meeting will end and a lot of times additional meeting or networking goes on after the meeting with what we call one-to-ones where the members will meet with one or two other people to find out more about their business.

PATCH: When are meetings held?

Dr. Mirante: Meetings are held weekly every Tuesday from 7:30am to 9am at the Community Center in Guilford, and we are mostly Madison and Guilford businesses.

PATCH: If one is interested in joining, who should they contact?

Dr. Mirante: It could be myself or any of our leadership team. If there’s an owner of a business that would like to become part of the group, they would check to see if the classification they are in is taken. Also, if people would like to hire us, there is every single thing that people need from a tradesperson to financial to home improvement to health and wellness to all these topics. If you want it, you can get it in our chapter.  It is the best of the best people. You know you’re going to get a quality person when you hire people in this group.

For additional information, please visit www.shorelineeast.biz or call Dr. Keith Mirante (president) of Coastal Chiropractic & Wellness at (203)245-8217 or (860)604-6639 or Joseph Sarfaty (vice president) of Celebration Development Group at (203)927-2770.