Networking Valentine: What’s black & white and read all over?
Periodically, I like to remind my readers and prospective clients to look for networking and new business opportunities in the most obvious place: your daily newspaper. It is still black and white (whether online or in-print), and it contains many gems if “red” (sic: read) all over!
Let’s take a look at the Monday edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer, with its daily focus on different business themes (Monday = “Small Business”). Since there is no business news over the preceding weekend, the editors publish the weekly “Business Calendar” and “People in the News” in the Monday edition. (BTW: It seems the calendar may not be accessible online anymore, so you’ll have to decide if there is sufficient ROI to warrant .75cent investment in the good-ol’ fashioned newspaper.) My ROI analysis:
Business Calendar for week beginning Jan. 31st:
- Tues, 02/01/11: Network Through the Stacks – Horsham Chamber of Commerce – 215-360-2968 – FREE
- Wed, 02/02/11: Game Changing Software & Internet Solutions w/software investor & blogger, Charlie Federman – 215-790-3722 -FEE
- Thurs, 02/02/11: Orientation & Business Assessment Workshop – Women’s Business Dev’t Center – 215-790-9232 -FREE
Week beginning Feb. 7th:
- Tues, 02/08/11: Speaker @ Sales & Marketing Executives of Phila – FEE
- Wed, 02/09/11: Networking & membership event – Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS) – FEE
- Wed., 02/09/11: Professional Women’s Roundtable Reception – FEE
- Thurs, 02/10/11: JumpStart: Before You Start, Women’s Business Development Center – FEE
- Thurs, 02/10/11: Super Bowl Smackdown, Phila Chapter American Marketing Association – FEE
In the “People in the News” section, find names of people you know (or want to know) at companies that are alive and well: they are hiring and promoting people.
And of course, you can indulge in some of your own out-of-the-box thinking by reading about what others are doing, e.g.
- Rajant Corp of Malvern, a maker of wireless communication networks whose products are now successfully exported to Australia, Canada, Mexico, and elsewhere, improving our balance of trade and local economy;
- A cabinetmaker and fine woodworker “went with the flow” of a career change (suggested by his Dad); his elevator remodeling business is projected to generate $50 million in annual sales, with a new factory on the drawing board for western USA.
