BUILDING MY ROLODEX

A friend called last week to schedule a “let’s catch up” lunch. I grabbed my calendar and he asked when I was available. When I told him it would be a week and a half before I could get together, he was shocked. He asked if I had a lot of jobs in the middle of the day during the week. I told him that mid-weekday work was rare, but I tried to book as many lunch meetings as possible.

While a few clients will take a lunch meeting, most of my mid-days are spent at networking meetings. I belong to several business networking groups and a few Chambers of Commerce. Their events and meetings give me the opportunity to meet hundreds of other business owners and contacts, face-to-face, to build great relationships. And those people can help carry my message to the hundreds of people they each know. In turn, I grow my contact list to possibly help my other contacts and clients with referrals.

A quick scenario; At a recent networking event, I met a man who owns a commercial hard surface cleaning company. They specialize in removing dirt from tile floors and walls in restaurants. They can restore grout to like-new appearance. When asked what I do, I briefly discussed my business. And I emphasized my vast experience and interest in working at restaurants.

To be honest, I will never own a restaurant. And he may never need a balloon entertainer. But as he visits his restaurant clients, I’ll be on his mind anytime someone mentions “Family Night”. And I will drop his name to people I meet who own restaurants, retirement homes and schools; any place with a kitchen that might have tile floors. If I can bring a referral to an existing or potential client, I improve my reputation. I’m not just pushing balloons, I’m also helping the client look out for their business.

There are many types of networking groups. Some require membership fees, other have meeting and referral requirements, while a few have mandatory participation levels.

Casual Contact Networks – These groups allow a wide range of professions to get together, learn about each other’s business and get to know each other in a non-business scenario. These networks often have monthly lunch meetings that can include guest speakers talking on topics of business, technology, marketing or other topics of general interests. Casual Contact Networks can also meet for breakfast meetings or after-work mixers. These networks include Chambers of Commerce that require membership.

Chambers are excellent sources to get to know businesses in your market. Members generally refer other members and meetings often allow attendees to bring marketing material to meetings to share. Most Chambers will allow guests to visit a couple of meetings prior to joining. This will allow you to get a feel for the group. I advise visiting several Chambers if possible. In my market, I could join up to eight Chambers of Commerce that are in my area. Not all of them fit my style or my marketing approach. I have been a guest at many of the Chamber luncheons to learn which ones work for me.

An excellent source for Casual Contact Networks is Meetup (http://www.meetup.com/). The website allows anyone to start a group, set up meetings and invite people to attend. These groups are very diversified, (Brazilan Culture, Ballet, Fitness, Single Mothers). But there are thousands of business networking groups. Just type your area of interest and zip code in the search fields. A quick look at the list can reveal many groups that gather at an area restaurant once a month just so you can meet other business owners, swap biz cards and help spread the word about their products/services. These meetings usually allow each person to stand in front of the group and present a short introduction to your company.

Strong Contact Networks – These groups typically meet weekly for the purpose of exchanging direct referrals collected over the previous week. Membership is restricted to only one person from each profession or specialty, (1 lawyer, 1 accountant, etc). The meetings are usually more structured than Casual Networks, allowing open networking but only a couple of more detailed presentations from selected members. These groups require members to cultivate their contacts into specific referrals for other members.

The largest of these networks is BNI (http://www.bni.com/), with chapters all over the world.

Community Service Clubs – These groups offer the opportunity to give back to the community while building relationships with other businesses that are like-minded in support of the Club. While there is no overt networking involved, conversations often revolve around business and providing word-of-mouth marketing.

Service Clubs include Rotary Club, Lions Club and Kiwanis Club. Primarily established for community improvement, these groups can be an excellent source of referral possibilities.

Professional Associations – What have been called “Knowledge Networks”, these groups are made up of one specific industry, (banking, insurance, architecture). The primary purpose of a professional association is to exchange information and ideas. While you might not be able to join the Certified Life Underwriters Association or the American Accounting Association, these can be excellent sources for referral business. While attending a networking event, ask an acquaintance if they are a member of any professional associations. Ask if they would recommend your service to their members. Chances are they would be eager to share your information with their colleagues.

Do I belong to a Professional Association? YES; My local balloon jam! While don’t have a fancy name like the Regional Association of Latex Inflators, we do get together to share twisting ideas, exchange tips for ending lines and help solve each other’s problems.

There are several tips to successful networking.

- Find groups that fit. You might “kiss a lot of frogs”, but you will eventually find groups that are comfortable and offer you opportunity to expand your contacts.
- Practice your “elevator speech”. This is your quick introduction of who you are and what you do. Emphasis on QUICK. Fifteen to thirty seconds and include who you are, your company name and your top services. I like to have the other person talk first. That way I can possibly customize my intro to fit their company.
- Have business cards available, not in your hand. Don’t introduce yourself by extending your right hand for a shake and extending your left hand with a business card. Wait for the opportunity during the conversation. If the opportunity arises, make it happen. Ask the other person for their card. They will also ask for yours. Now you have a prospect for your services and you have a contact for your referral list.
- Set yourself apart. One of the key tools, according to marketing geniuses, (Seth Godin, Scott Ginsberg), is to be unique. I don’t have a problem with that. In all of my networking groups, I am the only balloon business. And I don’t join a group that doesn’t provide the opportunity for me to bring a sample of my work to every meeting. Whether it is an attendance prize or a gift for the hosting restaurant, I always bring a balloon sculpture to show off my talents. I can talk all day about my stage show or my delivery pieces or my décor work and people will listen. But when I walk in with bouquet of balloon flowers or a leprechaun on a pot of gold or Santa with Rudolph, people are approaching me and asking what I do.

The best advice, above all other, is this: Participate. Regardless of the group you join, you must attend the meetings, join the conversations, meet new people, catch up with people you already know and become known to everyone. This is the best way to expand your referral base and build the relationships that will increase your business.

Thad James
SAMMY J Balloon Creations
http://www.sammyjballoons.com/
“Balloon entertainment with a twist”

Balloon Garden Wrap-up

Balloon Garden is popped and packed. This was the largest single project I have ever produced. Five days of construction, almost 7000 balloons, six inflators, pages of drawings, sleepless nights, countless re-designs, one garden gnome and thousands of thrilled visitors. While SAMMY J Balloon Creations received the recognition for this presentation, I am hardly alone in deserving credit for this project coming to life.

Gary Zide of the Home Builders Association of St Louis approached me many months ago with the idea of doing something special with balloons at the St Louis Home & Garden Show. While I have performed at one of the other home shows, Gary wanted a unique feature at their large show. We initially discussed placing large balloon flower bouquets around the show floor. I challenged Gary to imagine something bigger and more impressive than had ever been seen at any home show. I met with Gary, Tammy and Ellen at the HBA office and Balloon Garden was born. Without the imagination of the HBA staff, the event would not have been possible. They understood the idea of building a 600-square foot, interactive, walk-through space that would contain all the elements of an English-style garden feature; made completely out of balloons. Their vision launched the project.

After that initial meeting, I called several trusted contacts for feedback and advice, including Johnna Perry, Larry Moss, Jan Iiams and Troy Apprill. Having a large contact list is one thing. Having the ability to discuss a project like this with a wide range of very talented people is invaluable. I cannot express my heartfelt appreciation for these people.

Johnna Perry has a mind like none other. Her unique perspective helped me work through scheduling, proposal writing, scheduling, idea conceiving, logistics, dealing with clients and handling the public. She can balance the business side and creative side of projects. Johnna always has been and always will be on my speed dial.

Larry Moss is the king of large projects and everyone knows it. If you don’t, you need a lesson. He has conceived of and produced the greatest, largest, most impressive balloon projects in history. His resume of large-scale work cannot be rivaled. Larry took the time to listen to me rant about Balloon Garden. While he doesn’t believe he provided direct advice, he confirmed many of my actions. By working with Larry on Balloon Manors and watching him produce his projects gave me the confidence to produce my own project. Larry’s spirit was with me throughout this endeavor.

Calling Jan Iiams for advice was easy. I’ve done it several times in the past and will continue to do it in the future. Jan’s fountain of creativity never stops. And while she conceives great ideas, she is open to changes to her concepts if it helps the finished project. She appreciates my twisted mind. I am always proud to work with Jan because I always leave the job with more knowledge and a greater appreciation for the work.

Jan helped me work with Betallic to secure sponsorship of Balloon Garden. Betallic realized the unique possibility of this project and provided the product for this venture. A very special “Thank You!” to Mary Ann Amick and Jordan Von Wumb for their hard work and patience. I was able to work with the full palette of Betallatex products to produce an extremely colorful space. I incorporated most of the Betallatex sizes: 160, 260, 360, 660, Link-O-Loon®, specialty shapes, four shades of green for flower stems, five shades of blue for water, dozens of colors for flowers.

Balloon Garden owes its life to many people but none more so than Troy Apprill of Balloonville Productions. Troy was my creative collaborator, co-designer and project partner. He kept me sane, kept me on task, kept me positive and kept me laughing. We were cold, tired, hungry, sore, bored, irritated and confused. We shared and cared and built an amazing balloon spectacle. We may never speak to each other again. “Just grab it and go!”

I have many indelible balloon memories in my mind; my first balloon book, my first balloon convention, meeting my balloon heroes, Balloon Manor 1. Planning and creating Balloon Garden will join those monumental memories. To anyone who encouraged me, provided advice and supported, visited the project, sent me a picture of their favorite flower, saw me with Tim on TV; I owe you a Thank You and a debt of gratitude. Now on to the next job!

Thad James
SAMMY J Balloon Creations
www.sammyjballoons.com
“Balloon entertainment with a twist”

DOING WHAT YOU LOVE

As I write this article, the thermo-
meter reads three degrees. I’m not boasting or com-
plaining. My friends in Minnesota and Michigan are emboldened by their temperatures in the negatives. And fellow ballooners in Florida started wearing coats and gloves when the mercury plummeted below fifty.

I love living in the Midwest. I enjoy having equal parts of all four seasons. I look forward to the heat and humidity of August, the rain of April, the late frost in March, the last gasp of fall in November, the first day of short pants in March, the following day of wearing coat and gloves. I truly feel sorry for anyone who can’t enjoy both mowing the lawn and shoveling the driveway.

The cold weather gives me the opportunity to organize myself for the coming year. Compiling receipts and invoices for tax time, updating addresses for marketing campaigns, writing press releases for upcoming projects and working on new balloon designs.

I was recently talking with a friend at a networking luncheon. He has recently started a graphic design business out of his home. He has many years of experience and is very talented. His portfolio of logos, ad campaigns and websites is very impressive. (He designed the logo for my Balloon Garden project.) He’s been self-employed for about six months and already has a good client list.

We were discussing all the stuff we have to do that has nothing to do with the stuff we want to do. As we talked, we were joined by a few other “non-employee” business owners. (That’s the term being used to describe anyone who runs a company but doesn’t hire traditional employees.) Our little group included a bookkeeper, a baker, a plumber, a graphic designer and a balloon entertainer. We had a lot in common. While we all worked out of a home office, (the baker has partnered with a commercial kitchen), and are in different businesses, we all loved what we did. We all had a passion for our chosen field.

Unfortunately, to be successful in our business, we had to spend a lot of time not doing what we loved. Between marketing, contracting, invoicing, phone calls, letters, return phone calls and proposals; we were left with a small part of the calendar to perform our expertise. We came to the conclusion that you better love what you do because you’ll get very little time to do it. The rest of the time involves trying to convince someone to pay you to do what you love doing.

Many in our little group had worked in larger companies doing what they were now doing on their own. The plumber had worked for a national chain. The baker had worked in many restaurants. The bookkeeper had worked for a big firm. We all had our own reasons for starting our own businesses. Either the freedom to make our own decisions or to express our own ideas or to do things the way we wanted.

We discussed what we most loved about owning our own businesses. Nobody talked about the paperwork or phone calls or sending contracts. The plumber loves to rebuild drains. The baker loves to decorate cakes. The bookkeeper loves to balance numbers. I love to create unique balloon sculptures and entertain an audience. In our own ways, we love to show off what we love to do for the appreciation of our clients.

Certainly the burden of having to do everything yourself is outweighed by the sense of accomplishment in doing everything yourself. Love what you do and appreciate the time you get to do it.

Thad James
SAMMY J Balloon Creations
www.sammyjballoons.com
“Balloon entertainment with a twist”