New Networking Group Helps Local Charities

A new networking group in Land O’ Lakes will not only help businesses receive quality referrals, it will also help the community.

Edna Dunston, owner of Sophisticated Tailoring, started Preferred Referrals Networking a few weeks ago. It meets Tuesdays from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Land O’ Lakes Community Center, 5401 Land O’ Lakes Blvd. Lunch is served for $12 a person and is catered by Vesh, a restaurant in The Groves.

“The motivation was to start a group that would give back to the community,” Dunston said. “It is my vision to have maybe 30 to 50 people who are really helping each other with quality referrals and helping the community. I wanted to start a group I can be proud of.”

Everyone on the board was selected by Dunston because through their jobs, they help people.

“Everyone on the board is fantastic and motivated,” Dunston said. “They all have prior networking experience and they all have the same vision I do. Everybody has a profession that is all about helping others.”

Sam McPherson, independent associate for Pre-Paid Legal Services, Les Saland of Saland Insurance Solutions, Surelys Messelmani, assistant branch manager at Superior Bank, and Laura Liebler, owner and president of The Cleaning Authority, are all on the board. All the board members said they wanted to join because of the group’s commitment to the community.

Dunston said she chose Liebler because she does so many things to help people. The Cleaning Authority cleans houses of cancer patients undergoing treatment for free.

“I joined because I wanted to support Edna’s vision of having a networking group with a focus of giving back to the community,” Liebler said. “We want people to come away from these meetings feeling like they learned something. If I can learn something that will help me grow my business or grow in my profession then I spent my time here wisely.”

The networking group has selected the Relay for Life at Land O’ Lakes High School for its first community partner.

“Right now we are sponsoring the Relay for Life team Flushing Out Cancer,” Dunston said. “Since we are a new group, we will just be helping by collecting money and we are also going to walk at the relay. In the future, we hope to host fundraisers.”

In addition to helping the community, the group also plans to educate its members to help them be more successful.

“We want this to be a place where people can come to be educated,” Dunston said. “We are going to have great speakers and we plan to have learning activities too. We want to motivate our members to help people and to help themselves.”

At a recent meeting, everyone split up into small groups and brainstormed the top five answers to questions involving how to grow a business. One group discussed ways to improve customer relations.

The group decided that the best way to improve relations was to stay in contact with customers through e-mails, thank you notes and greeting cards. They decided doing activities for clients like having wine and cheese parties was also a good idea.

The networking group will only let one business of each category join at a time. For example, if the group already has a chiropractor then it will not allow another chiropractor into the group. If that situation occurs, the business is put on a waiting list and notified if the original business leaves the networking group.

Currently the networking group has about 10 businesses signed up. One of those businesses is Design Powerhouse, a company that helps businesses websites get noticed by being on the first page of a Google search.

Allen Dietzschold said he joined the group because he realized it would be a good opportunity for growing his business. The company’s website is PowerHouseSEO.com.

“I like that we have the opportunity to work with the community,” Dietzschold said. “I have been involved with networking for over 10 years. It means $20,000 to $30,000 in business for the company.”

 The membership fees are $150 for the first year and it costs $12 every meeting for lunch. For more information, visit prnfl.org or call 813-785-3177.