Q&A: Doug Means organizes Meetup Groups for Small Businesses

ON THE ROAD: Day Three

I sat down with the San Diego Small Business Meetup Group organizer Doug Means in Kearny Mesa to talk about how small businesses are using social media to optimize business during the economic slow down.

Means is the organizer for the Entrepreneur, Small Business and Network Marketing Meetup Groups and also works for BNI for his day job. 

Here are excerpts from our conversation:


Jessica: Can you briefly tell me what The San Diego Small Business Meetup Group is about?

Doug: Well, the Entrepreneur and Small Business groups, and the Network Marketing Group is a third piece, it is a community of people with a business focus here. A lot of people that either have their own business or looking to start one. 

For the most part, we have events where we go and meet each other. And it got a little bit bigger, a little bigger as far as the people that were showing up to the point where there were 15 to 20 people at a dinner table. 

I try to from a business standpoint, people want to get to know each other. I know from my other networking activities that getting as much face to face time and visibility is helpful. So we started off doing introductions and I encouraged people to figure out who they wanted to talk to before they left. Someone brought up the idea one time about speed networking and actually I went, duh, I should do that, because for a very short period of time, I organized some speed dating events. And I went, speed networking is a lot easier because all the work on the speed dating was matching people up and taking all their answers and sending all their information. With speed networking, I didn't have to do any of that. And you can get people in front of each other and you're forcing people to speak with one another. 

Jessica:  I'm seeing that more and more businesses in San Diego are trying to use online tools like Meetup.com by joining groups and meeting up for networking and other social networking tools. What is it about your meetup groups that small businesses can benefit from?

Doug: It is social networking certainly in building relationships, but in a business focus standpoint there are tools. Probably the best known would be linkedn.com. There are a few others. Even I am learning more and more about those. I'm no expert. 

One of the main differences, for the most part, is that those are more online, not face to face. The goal of meetup is to get communities together face-to-face. When it comes to building relationships with people, the face-to-face interaction goes a long way. Also the idea of having regularly occurring events, whether they are weekly or monthly, is getting to know people over a period of time.

Jessica: News reports are coming in now saying we are in a full-blown recession or fairly close to one. I've seen small businesses using these small tools to optimize their business. Are you seeing an increase in traffic of people coming to the meetup events in the last few months?

Doug: What I'm seeing overall is a big transition. I'm seeing a lot of people that have fallen on tough times or tough situations. They are out and having to do something else now, whatever reason it may be. Whether they've been cut or starting own business and it's just not working. All of sudden there is a transition of other people who are looking for more business. There are  lot of new faces as well at the same time.

Jessica: And that's consistent with the economy slowing down?

Doug: Yeah. It's consistent with the economy.

Jessica: And what kind of businesses are you seeing coming through the door to your meetup events?

Doug: I haven't really analyzed it. The consistent factor is people who are looking to either grow their businesses or they are looking at opportunities to step out of what they are doing and doing something else and considering starting a business. That would be a common denominator.

I'm going to put you in front of about 14 people, face-to-face, and you're going to get a lot face time with a lot of people in a short concentrated amount of time. It's up to each individual to maximize their time and maximize what they are doing. What they need to do is identify what people they met that night that are the one, two, three, four, five people I need to follow up with. Now it's the follow up and it's getting to know those people and build on that relationship.  
Read more...

ON THE ROAD: A social network startup

ON THE ROAD: Day Two

I stop for a chat with Carlo Desierto about the social network he created for small and Fortune-100 companies: 

MyCCMpro.

  Every week, Carlo Desierto opens a drawer in his office in San Diego and pulls out a long sheet of paper that stretches from one end of the room to the other.

The long sheet of paper is a timeline Desierto created to track his goals, failures and achievements.

The timeline begins in 2001, before Desierto left Iraq and picked up three jobs.

"I knew if I could (stay in a fox hole for two weeks), I could do anything,'' he said. Every month he reflects on how he can make himself better.

Just this year, he started a social networking Web site designed for small to fortune-100 businesses called MyCCMpro.

Carlo said one day he was sitting at his desk looking at his database management system on one side of the screen and MySpace on the other.

Then it clicked.

Why couldn't he create a social networking site as a contact and client management program?

Using the MySpace model of banner advertising, Desierto offers the database management system for free. The system allows users to input contacts and tracks notes written about the person. What makes the system effective, is that users can set up reminders to follow-up with contacts.

Desierto says he now can make 50 calls in under 20 minutes to check up on potential clients, instead of the hours it took before.

Desierto uses the social networking site Meetup.com and word of mouth to bring in potential users to trains them how to use MyCCMpro. Desierto hosts classes at 5440 Morena Blvd. in San Diego.

During my visit to his office at Credit Report Atlas Services LLC, Carlo pulled out a green binder in which he keeps a journal of his goals.

He points to a entry dated back to over four years ago, "Understand that going out is expensive ... Remember not even having enough to buy a burrito."

While the numbers of users on MyCCMpro are at a meager 141 subscribers right now, he remembers what it was like to have nothing and keeps recruiting more users.

Read more...

DAY 1: Small businesses harness social media

DAY ONE: The San Diego Small Business Meetup Group


View Larger Map

The noise in the room was almost deafening as I sat in a room full of San Diego's small business leaders exchanging ideas and sharing information.

On Monday night, about 40 small business leaders packed into a room at the Best Western Seven Seas in Mission Valley for the San Diego Small Business Meetup Group. The goal was to "speed network" -- a more professional form of speed dating.

I had to shout to let the person across from me hear what I was saying. The air was electrified with ideas of how to fight back against a slowing economy and decreased consumer spending.

This group was formed through the social networking site Meetup.com, which allows people from all over the world to develop communities online about shared interests and then meetup face-to-face in groups. 

As the economic slowdown goes global this week, Meetup.com is one of several social networking sites San Diego business leaders are harnessing to fight back against a slowing economy.

Doug Means, director of BNI in San Diego, started the group to help facilitate San Diego's small business leaders to share information. (Check back later this week for a Q&A with Doug.)

Social network sites are increasingly being used by small businesses in San Diego because they are a free and innovative way to collaborate with other businesses, says Jay Neilsen of Right Turn Web site Development in Poway. 

The San Diego Small Business Meetup Group has nearly 450 members of business leaders looking to expand business and share ideas.  

That's 450 members that have the opportunity to network during a time when budgets are tight.

Later today, I'm meeting up with Meetup member Carlo Desierto from Myccmpro.com to hear his class on optimizing the Internet for small businesses. 

Check back later for more on my conversations with small business leaders.

Read more...

SD ROAD TRIP: Trekking through the credit crunch

One suitcase, a box full of equipment, a tank full of gas, two reporters notebooks, a video camera and a laptop -- my road trip through San Diego County's small businesses begins.

I'm hitting the road this week, exploring the impact of the credit crunch on San Diego's small business community.

As many U.S. banks hold back capitol from small businesses, many owners are struggling to find money to fund holiday items, staff salaries and other daily needs to keep afloat.

For the next five days, I will be delving into the heart of the small business community to bring you updates on the impact of the current economic slowdown.

THE TRIP:

View Larger Map

Check back daily for updates.

Read more...

O.C. ANGLE: Angels v. Red Sox

*The Angle series explores beyond San Diego County to nearby Southern California areas.

Taking the train north from San Diego to Anaheim, I went under the Big A to ask the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and Boston Red Sox fans one question:

Why will your team go all the way to the World Series?



Read my live Twitter posts of the game.
Read more...

The Troubadours At War: Up Close

Read more...

The Troubadours At War

Two guitarist. One drummer. 

With the strum of the guitar, bassist Alex Packard began The Troubadours first performance at Channel 1225 in El Cajon on September 20.

Packard's band started out as a three-man band from Valhalla High School.

When one of the band members went away to college, Packard enlisted a new drummer and started The Troubadours, which means "traveling musician." 

Aliks Snyder leads with vocals and guitar, while Alex backs him up occasionally and plays the bass.

Packard says the band is still trying to find a full-time drummer. Until then, the Troubadours can be seen throughout the county strumming their original tunes.

Read more...