By meets I mean groups. I had to change because my original title was too long. Soon I will be moving back to the Bay Area and want to hit the ground running. I am thinking about joining one or more networking groups and wanted to find out some info from some of the other full-timers on here. Are you, or have you been part of any groups? If so, what was/is your experience and would you recommend them?
no one? i attended a bni meeting last week. not as weird as i thought it would be. might have been easier in hawaii since people are a little more friendly and talkative here on the whole. i dont think im going to join since i dont have the time for weekly meetings, nor do i feel like paying the initial membership fees. if it were half the price i would join. 400 bucks plus the yearly couple houndred is too much imho. feels too much like a pyramid scheme. with that said i did meet some interesting contacts, television ad salespeople, business insurance agent, graphic designer, business real estate agent, self storage manager(he told me that he has drive in units that are available to detail in) even a surf instructor.
I had been to BNI and Chamber of Commerce meetings when I was working for a financial advisor. The costs are just way too high, unless you are really generating solid business from the network. Unfortunately, the advisor I interned for put a lot more in than he got out, so sometimes I feel like its not always a two way street. The one I visited a few times did have a detailer in it but he was all about moving cars and did extremely shotty work. You could also look at places like meetup.com and similar sites that don't require membership fees and they are groups of local professionals and business owners who come together.
