hmatt's blog

This morning I somehow woke up early, and I decided that I was going to make the most of today.

I drove out to Burbank and began scouting a few restaurants. I’ve always wanted the flexibility that having my own consulting company would bring. I’ve been watching all the great work Matt has been doing in Seattle and I’m completely inspired. After struggling with anxiety and fears of my own, I realized that I only have one life to live and I would always wonder. Thus I begin.

I found a small room at a restaurant downtown, and I’m going to talk to the manager soon. It looks promising though.

After spending lots of time the other day, I finally decided upon a name, I chose “Mac Druthers”.

The word ‘druthers’ (rhyming with ‘brothers’) is an old-timey word that means ‘preferences’. A sort of slang of the phrase “would rather”. I felt that it aptly describes what people want to do with their computers… use them to get stuff done that they want to do. Macs can do some amazing things, and most people don’t know about all those things that can help them.

I walked over to Barnes and Noble and read from a few marketing books. Things like Twitter, web search engines, and networking. I’m pretty sure that the best way for me to advertise is with free workshops, which is why I am searching for good restaurants with rooms I can reserve.

I also read a completely fascinating idea that I am going to spearhead… a Profitable Networking Group! This small business networking group will be a place where we can all get together and really get to know people so we can refer them later on. I’d love this idea to help others out there who want to network, but don’t know where to go. Other so called ‘networking’ events have always felt rushed as people try to talk to everyone. Then the relationships never really develop. I remembered getting handed a card once by a guy who was a body guard at a networking event. There this hello how are you – let’s do business attitude that was quite jarring.

The book was entitled “Endless Referrals” and he mentioned some rules to abide by. Things like having only one representative from each profession in the group. This prevents competition over referrals obviously.

Then he wrote to get people committed to meet every week, at a time when ‘normal’ business hours are not available. I think mornings would be best, because then there’d be less conflict for people’s schedules.

Now comes the recruitment part. As the book mentioned, it will take a LOT of energy, but I know I’m helping people so it will be easier for me. I, of course, am helping myself too because they will know what I do and can refer people to me. Plus, for certain types of professions, it would be neat to interview them for the kids show! I’m eager to start!

I’ll have to go out swing dancing this Thursday and see if I can get anyone to join forces with me. Then they will have people in their world to invite etc. This group is a whole OTHER thing to do, but it is so important. Not just for business, but for personal reasons too. I’d love to help out the community as a greater whole and small businesses affect so many families out there. I didn’t grow up around such endeavors, but I’ve always admired the determination and the devotion of small business owners.

I’ll no doubt make mistakes as I go, but it is nice to think that maybe having this group will help me through the hard times.

More to come as I develop http://MacDruthers.com and the Profitable Networking Group.