THE POWER OF NETWORKING

There are many networking opportunities throughout Sydney however many of them can be costly and a waste of time.

Many of the events vary in price from $100 – $250 per event.

However after attending many events of the last 30 years I was introduced to a networking group that meet on a Tuesday morning at the Pavilion Restaurant, Art Gallery Rd, Sydney. The networking group is called Evolve and was started some 4 years ago.

The basis of this networking group is a givers gain philosophy and is also based on the fact that it only allows 1 company from 1 profession from a particular business sector ie 1 accountant, 1 lawyer, 1 web designer, 1 insurance broker etc.

The joining fees for this networking group is $1,100.00 for the first year and then $800.00 per year thereafter. There is also the cost of attending each week which covers the cost of the breakfast and venue hire, and Evolve’s case is $50.00.

The structure of the group is there is a president which is the MC for the breakfast, there is a vice president which looks after all the members both new and existing and there is a treasurer which looks after all the finances.

The events start at 6.30am and conclude by 8.30am.

It is a structured 2 hours of networking, referrals and closed business.

Currently the group has in excess of 45 members and in its first year had closed business of $1.2M and in its fourth year had closed business in excess of $12M. This means that typically a membership within this group can lead to additional revenue line of $250K in fees when you divide the closed business by the number of members.

The Evolve group meet every Tuesday and for those people looking to grow their business I would encourage you to search CBD Evolve as I know it has its own website.

Richard Skarzynski