Looking to find friends and people network with.

[businesscrazy83]

Does anyone know where a good place to find serious friendly people to network and do business with?

[huggytree]

look up BNI.com.....i used to be a member....there's one in every city and thats what they do...network

[KristineS]

Try your local Chamber of Commerce. A lot of the Chambers have business after hours functions and business lunches and such.

[businesscrazy83]

Hey thanks for the info guys! I appreciate it I will check it out.

[Nomad]

Local networking groups can be great. I think some more than others for actually growing your business. For example, the local Chamber of Commerce is generally a good business social organization. But, depending your business, there may be many others in your category represented there. Still, might be useful, though. There are also some local "exclusive" networking groups. I was involved with one for about two and a half years. Some businesses do very well, some don't. Most businesses don't stay in them for too long because of the rules, personality make-up of the group, the expense, the exclusivity (could be good OR bad), etc. But if you like to socialize weekly in person, it could work well, again, depending on the group and your business category.

I am also launching a new concept in referral networking for small businesses to connect locally on the web. It's in pre-launch, but addresses the issues that I had with the types of organizations above. I think it will work best for people who have businesses that could use local referrals from other businesses. It is designed to be very flexible and can be adapted to fit your specific business. I don't want to sound like I am advertising, but in the context of this thread, I think the site might fit at least a piece of the networking that you are looking to do.

Best of luck.

[huggytree]

i have found the chamber of commerce to be horrible for networking.....its a good way to get into parades.....in our local chapter its extremely clicky...i quit sending them cash 2 years ago, but they keep my membership for some reason...id go to their networking events and there would only be 5 people there....when i did to these id get a small job once a year...enough to pay for my membership..not much else...if your chamber is similar id skip that one...

[businesscrazy83]

Hmm wow gives me something to think about. Is the BNI and the Chamber of Confrence two diffrernt things?

[jamesray50]

I haven't heard very few good things about BNI. They only allow one member per industry and you have to refer someone every meeting. You also have to show up to every meeting and if you can't make it to a meeting you have to arrange for someone to go in your place.

Sign up for Meetup on the internet for your area and see if there are any network groups. Also check on LinkedIn. There are a couple of groups in Kentucky on Linkedin called Business xChange and Lexington Linkedin. They both have networking luncheons. Your area may have something similar, but you would have to do some digging to find them.

Do a goole search for networking events in your area to see what you can come up. You may find something. Good luck.