Consistent attendance at a few networking groups will likely prove to be more beneficial than casual attendance at many events
— Donna Messer
Once a month, Dave Eastman steps out… really steps out. Eastman, owner of GenerVations, a supplier of dairy genetics in Georgetown, Ont. takes that day away from agriculture and away from his regular business duties.
Instead, he spends the day in meetings organized by The Executive Committee-Canada, a leadership development organization.
Eastman belongs to a group of about a dozen business leaders from non-competing industries who meet for the full-day, completely confidential sessions. Business experts are brought in to some of the meetings to provide advice on human resources, marketing and strategic planning. Other times, group discussions are designed to extract maximum
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insight from the experience of all of the members.
“It’s nice getting different opinions and perspectives,” says Eastman. “It’s a great sounding board for business ideas, situations and problems.”
Networking may be an age-old concept, but so is everything else about farming, such as planting seed or feeding the pigs. And like them, networking is getting much more scientific so that it can deliver much more value.
Networking is also working for a wide range of farmers and farm businesses, from the mainstream to the offbeat.
Cathy Nesbitt got involved in a Success Team through ConnectUs Canada when she launched her worm composting enterprise, Cathy’s Crawly Composters, in 2002. Today, Nesbitt credits this group in part with the early success of her business. “Business is business,” adds Nesbitt, based at Bradford, Ont., “… it doesn’t matter what business you are in.”
In the Success Team model, 10 to 12 business owners come together monthly to help each other achieve their business goals. Each team member is given five minutes to talk about their specific goals. At the end of the five minutes, team members offer ideas, contacts and leads for another five minutes. A designated scribe writes down the suggestions.
One month later the success team meets again to see how everyone is progressing and to do another go-around. Success teams usually meet for about three months.
Surrounded by team members from different business backgrounds, Nesbitt says, “I was able to brainstorm solutions and bounce ideas off the other members, which is really helpful when you are stale.”
In today’s agriculture, networking can take many forms from formal Success Teams and executive leadership groups to internet discussion boards and the local coffee shop.
There are more opportunities, so it takes more thinking. A shotgun approach isn’t going to cut it.
Before attending any networking events, you need to figure out where you should be focusing your attention, says Donna Messer, nicknamed the queen of networking. Messer is president of ConnectUs Canada, a business matching company in Oakville, Ont. and she is author of the book, Effective Networking Strategies .
