November 28, 2003

One Business a leads group with extra punch

LOUISVILLE — Many small business owners rely on leads groups for networking opportunities and, well, obviously, for leads. Some leads groups are open to everyone, and some target specific individuals and businesses. The common denominator to all, however, is that members help increase each other’s business through a system of giving and receiving referrals.

Take the leads concept and add benefits like a marketing plan template, a business coaching session, a financial analysis and access to a database of 6,000 local e-mail addresses. Offer the package with a flexible membership fee payment option, and the concept becomes a business of its own.

Such is the foundation on which Greg Petri built his company in 1997.

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“We’re really an alternative chamber of commerce focused on marketing,´ said Petri, the chief executive of One Business Connection. “Our focus is to generate referrals for companies and to help people succeed.”

Petri quotes from the book, “E-Myth: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It,” where author Michael Gerber states that 90 percent of all businesses will fail in the first five years. A goal of One Business Connection is to provide businesses with the basic tools necessary to sidestep that prophecy.

Currently One Business Connection maintains a membership of between 400 and 500 in Colorado. The members are spread out into about 20 different leads groups in places that include Boulder County, Fort Collins, Thornton, Golden, Longmont, Lakewood, Loveland and the Denver Tech Center area.

Membership fees depend on the group opted for — some are specialty groups like all women or, coming soon, all Hispanic. Some groups are for individuals, and some are for corporations. Fees range from $400 to $500 a year.

Independent group leaders who are responsible for the upkeep of the individual leads group make a percentage of the membership fees. That amount ranges from 25 to 75 percent.

The every-other-week meetings include a topic of discussion. “Today it was ‘Quit getting ready to get ready’,” Petri said. He coined the phrase from a meeting he had years ago with a sales coach who gave him the advice. “He told me I couldn’t afford him. I thought he was an arrogant, obnoxious jerk — but he was right. Income is what business is about.”

Petri credits his idea of offering flexible payment options as one that helps seal the deal for a lot of individuals and businesses to sign up. “They can pay however they want — monthly, yearly, with any credit card,” he said. “There are lots of opportunities to participate.”

He bases the option on the fact that a lot of businesses run lean on cash available for joining anything or for marketing and advertising.

In addition to the individual leads meetings, One Business Connection pulls together networking opportunities where all members come together. A recent event held in FlatIron Crossing mall in Broomfield, for example, hosted about 150 people. Petri plans to offer similar group networking get-togethers on a quarterly basis.

Although Petri started out with a partner, that person left early on after coming into an inheritance. “We started this on a shoestring — my house funded a lot,” Petri said. He estimates the startup investment to have been about $50,000.

“This October is going to be a banner month for us,” he added. “We’ll bring in about $25,000 in revenue for the month.”

How was it to try and grow his new business once the economy turned south? “Our business actually went up when the economy went down,” he said. “When the economy is down, people look for any way they can to market. It’s generally easy to spend anywhere from $3,000 to $10,000 a year in advertising.

“I was originally going to go nationwide, but now my main focus is to be the best in Colorado,´ said Petri, a Colorado native born and raised in Gunnison. “We’ll be franchising at some point. That means someone would actually own a group.”

After working with so many individuals and businesses, Petri says that some of the things he thinks makes them unsuccessful include not having determination, vision or funding. “People get too distracted and intrigued by ideas and lose their focus,” he added.

“The No. 1 thing people need to do to be successful is to feed their minds,” he said. “If you read one book a month, in 10 years you’ll be in the top percentage of your industry.”

His advice includes both the tangible and the intangible. “You have to have a phenomenal systems like accounting, training and hiring. The better your systems, the better your business,” he said. “You also need a sales force, a good attitude toward sales and the ability to sell.

“Most important, though, is the vision. Tom Watson, who started IBM, said he was successful because he knew what his business would look like when it was done.”

LOUISVILLE — Many small business owners rely on leads groups for networking opportunities and, well, obviously, for leads. Some leads groups are open to everyone, and some target specific individuals and businesses. The common denominator to all, however, is that members help increase each other’s business through a system of giving and receiving referrals.

Take the leads concept and add benefits like a marketing plan template, a business coaching session, a financial analysis and access to a database of 6,000 local e-mail addresses. Offer the package with a flexible membership fee payment option, and the concept becomes a business of its…

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