by Ellis Smith/Times-Georgian
Heidi McGuire of Town Planner Calendar, Laura Clawson of Unleash the Pawsitive and Gary Hewitt of Southland Insurance Agency, three of the 80 members of the Villa Rica Business to Business networking group, confer during an after-hours meeting on Tuesday. The group usually meets every Tuesday morning at the Olive Tree Restaurant in Villa Rica. (Thomas O’Connor/Times-Georgian)
Gary Hewitt of Southland Insurance Agency is one of the many members of the Villa Rica Business to Business Networking Group. Hewitt and other members meet once a week to share business trips, strategies and form relationships. Hewitt is also a member of Carrollton Business to Business. (Thomas O’Connor/Times-Georgian)
The owners of Mobley Jewelers, Atlanta Roof Cleaning and the Southland Insurance Agency in Villa Rica have something in common. Every Tuesday at 8 a.m., they meet in Villa Rica’s Olive Tree Restaurant along with about 30 other small business owners to swap business tips, share strategies and form relationships.
Heidi McGuire, publisher of the Town Planner in Carrollton and Villa Rica and also a regular at the meetings, believes Business to Business, or B2B, is significantly different from other networking groups.
“This group is more consistent because we meet every single Tuesday, so we really get a chance to know each other,” said McGuire, who has become friends with several group members, and hosts them at her home once a month.
Founded by John Dickerson in 2007, the group stems from an encounter between Dickerson and a Cobb County marketing consultant four years ago.
“It was a new concept, trying to clean roofs, and I was floundering, trying to find the best way to market,” said Dickerson.
But the idea put forth by the marketing consultant, to work directly with local business owners to better reach out to customers, appealed to him. Dickerson took the idea with him when he moved his business first to Douglasville and then to Villa Rica.
As he described the concept, it’s a way to strategize and brainstorm for creative ideas, much like marketing gurus would do at a large corporation. But it’s more than that. They also share business leads and help each other find solutions to real business problems.
“Basically, what I tell them is that most of your big business or corporations have a board-room meeting, well this is our board-room meeting,” he said.
However, finding a place to meet in Villa Rica was difficult at first.
“We started meeting first at the Hess Truck Stop, because I’m a big fan of Godfather’s Pizza, and there’s a Godfather’s Pizza there,” Dickerson said. Unfortunately, the group “didn’t get a lot of turnout for that one, so we moved to Coffee Town, USA, and got up to about 25 members.”
Those 25 B2B members settled on a simple formula for success. Following an optional prayer before the meeting, each business owner gives a one-minute presentation, designed to encapsulate the experience of introducing one’s self to a stranger on the elevator.
Next, one business owner each week gives a seven-minute presentation to paint a broader picture of their services and needs. Before the meeting ends, members give “shout-outs” to publicly thank each other for referrals or advice.
After establishing a rhythm, B2B moved again to the since-closed Berry and Bean, and finally to its current headquarters, the Olive Tree Restaurant. Dickerson, a former senior chief petty officer in the Navy, worked to grow B2B to over 80 members, approximately 30 of whom are able to attend meetings regularly. As the group expanded, so did the amount of assistance members received from one another.
“When a new business comes in and they’re just getting started, everybody there that’s been in business for a while tries to help them find their niche market, figure out what they are trying to do, who are they trying to reach,” Dickerson said.
Members brainstorm to come up with tag lines for each other, polish marketing plans, and improve advertisements. The way the group is structured, the success of any one member helps the entire group.
All Square Publications, which preps score cards for golf courses, came to the group with the goal of expanding its business and reaching new markets. With the help of the group, and Dickerson in particular, the owner came up with the slogan, “Helping businesses find the green.” The tag line has become so successful that other group members have begged him to allow them to borrow it.
As with businesses all over the country, though, some owners have faced difficulty recently. Gary Hewitt, current head of the Carrollton B2B and owner of Southland Insurance, has temporarily suspended operation of the Carrollton B2B due to the struggling economy.
“So many businesses that were a part of it either suspended operations or shut down, but we still try to do it when we can,” Hewitt said.
Still, things are starting to look up.
“A lot of folks that suspended operations last year are now going back to work and starting their operations back up after being stagnant for a year,” Hewitt said.
Hewitt believes that networking remains as important as ever, even in trying times.
“I think as people see a little more of this silver lining showing up, they will get back involved and as they do they will prosper from their involvement, because the more you network the more chance you have for growth,” he said.
Hewitt pointed to Marlon Ellis of Ellis Heating and Air as a networking success story. According to Hewitt, “He has used B2B and various other avenues to build his business. Marlon is to the point now where he’s adding employees, even during a difficult time. None of this would have been possible without Marlon’s efforts to network. Now of course he’s gone above and beyond in this because he’s actually helped people himself in their struggling times.”
“Yeah the economy is bad,” Dickerson added. “But just in this past three months my business has picked up astronomically, and I praise God for that, because I know it’s all His doing.”