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Businesses hold monthly dinners |
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Thursday, 01 March 2007 |
By Mandy McFarland Editor
NAPPANEE — Networking was the theme at the first-ever After Hours monthly business event on Thursday, Feb. 22.
The event is sponsored by the Nappanee Area Chamber of Commerce. This month’s After Hours took place at Heritage House, located just outside of Nappanee on Waterfall Drive off of County Road 7.
The basic premise behind the event is to give local businesses the chance to meet on a regular basis and share ideas, get advice and build working relationships with one another.
Each month, a different business signs up to be the After-Hours host. The idea is for the business to host the meeting on-site. However, many business owners do not have the room to host such a large gathering.
This is where Heritage House steps in.
“We know a lot of business owners do not have the room to host people, so we approached the Chamber of Commerce and said they could come here,” said Heritage House director David Smith.
In addition, Heritage House provides a light dinner and cleanup afterwards.
The meetings will take place every month except November and December. In addition, host businesses must be members of the Nappanee Area Chamber of Commerce.
Special guest speaker Steve Thalls of Action Profit Club gave an interactive presentation on the benefits of business networking, where business owners build working relationships with other business owners.
In an exercise titled “The 30 Second Commercial,” Thalls explained the idea of pleasure versus pain, stating that prospects are most interested in buying ways to avoid various types of pain, whether that be physical pain, the pain of hunger, the pain of inconvenience and so forth.
Thalls went on to explain that it takes approximately 30 seconds to get a prospective buyer’s attention and to convince them to invest in that business’s product.
Martin’s Supermarket hosted last Thursday’s event. Store manager Tim Stump gave an update on the progress of the new store, including plans for a Starbuck’s, a cafe area overlooking the store, a service meat and seafood counter, the addition of organic foods in every department and a drive-up pharmacy window, among other features.
According to Stump, no definite plans have been made for the existing Martin’s building, however the store plans to stay open throughout the moving process so that customers can continue to shop for groceries.
The Chamber invites local businesses to sign up for an end-of-the-month slot to host an After-hours event.
Each host business receives what Chamber Executive Director Larry Andrews calls “a menu of speakers to choose from.” However, according to Andrews, the host business will not be required to choose from that menu. The idea is for each business owner to choose a speaker with a message tailored to his or her specific business.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 09 March 2007 )
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