Just Give Me 5 Minutes
Millionaire Blueprints
If this sounds a lot like speed dating, it should. When Melissa English attended a speed dating event, she was looking for love. Returning the next day to the office she shares with her sister, Sonia, Melissa realized what she had found was an idea whose time had come in the business marketplace.
With their combined business savvy, web development and networking experience, Sonia and Melissa English created 5Minute Networking. Using the fun and format of speed dating, the algorithms of a computer programmer, and personal contacts, they launched a website and scheduled their first event. The English sister’s share with Millionaire Blueprints how speed dating and networking became a match made in heaven. What was your light bulb moment and where did you take it from there? The light bulb moment was last year. Melissa was at a speed dating event and she came back with a few leads for our website development company, www.eflation.com. On the same night I was at one of your typical chamber mixers and I really didn’t come back with anything. It was Melissa’s light bulb the next day that said, “Why don’t we do this for business?” Due to the fact that we had a website developing company, putting a website together and throwing it up there was easy. We did that, and it pretty much has just taken off from there. What was on that first website you set up? What was your message? Our message there was just that we had a new idea for networking. Why not do it in this exact format as speed dating? We grew www.eflation.com through networking and referrals and I had been to every networking event from here to kingdom come. There are just so many inefficiencies in networking.
One of the taglines on our website was, “When was the last time you went to a networking event and met 20 people?” Business networking is a numbers game. If you meet 20 people you have a much better chance of coming away with a lead for your business than you do at a typical networking event, where you may only meet three or four people. Often, you already know those three or four people. So who was your target market? Who did you approach? Did you organize the events yourself?
Yes, initially we organized events ourselves. Now we refer to those as Signature Events. Melissa came up with this idea on August 19th of 2004 and the first event we scheduled was September 29th. We launched the website www.5MinuteNetworking.com 10 days prior to that event.
To find a venue for our first event, we wrote a list of high-end restaurants in our area and began contacting them. When we contact restaurants, we let them know it is an excellent opportunity for them to showcase their venue, and offerings to 50 business professionals. When approaching a venue, we contact them either by phone or in person. We were very lucky, in that when planning our first event back in September of 2004, the first restaurant we approached was eager to host our event. As we became better known in our community, restaurants approached us. Many organizations we work with - including chambers of commerce and alumni associations - already have pre-established relationships with restaurants.
To promote our first event, I went to other networking events and used my own personal network. We polled the people who came to the event, and people just loved it. The response we got was phenomenal. We received thank-you cards and phone calls the next day. I can honestly say I have never ever sent a thank-you card to the facilitator of any networking event that I have attended. The day after our first event, Melissa and I said to each other, “This could work!”
When we set up the web site, we started getting a lot of interest from people who wanted to work for us – from as far away as Bermuda. The Internet makes the world a very small place. Because our background was in web development, we knew the benefits of (1) having a professional website and (2) pay-per-click advertising. With pay-per-click advertising, you only pay when someone views your website. Thanks to the Internet and search engine placement, our site has been viewed from individuals all over the world.
What did you charge for that first one and then how did you decide how the pricing point?
We charged $45 for the first one, based on other networking and speed-dating event pricing. After doing research on psychological price points, we trimmed it down to $39. People were more comfortable with that at a psychological level.
Speed-dating events were priced at $35, and our rationale was that since our events are for business networking, we could price our events slightly higher.
What does it cost to attend other business networking events? A lot of other business networking groups are membership-based. Because we had such a phenomenal response to our event format, we decided to keep our events ticket based, rather than membership-based. When we went national in January, we found that people were intrigued by the name and concept of 5 Minute Networking. We put it out there and people came to our events. How many people typically attend these events? Fifty people for the first event. It depends on the venue. We actually did an event on a tennis court not long ago, after a professional tennis match. We’ve done it at restaurants, hotels - you name it, and we’ve probably done it. Did you have them register in advance or pay at the door? We had people register in advance. When we started 5 Minute Networking, we advertised 20 introductions, so we had to absolutely make sure that we had forty people there. Now with our software, we aren’t as worried about the number of participants because we have different rotation options.
Before you developed your software, which software did you use? Excel spreadsheets. They worked for about the first event or two, but then we had repeat clients coming to our events. We wanted to make sure that our repeat customers met new people at every event. Another issue excel spreadsheets don’t help with is how to rearrange seats should someone leave the event early. We started running into problems in trying to figure out all these variables. For instance, there are a lot of specific industries that network quite heavily. We were finding at our events that we were getting inundated by the same industry groups. We wanted to limit the number of participants per industry and make sure that those in complimentary industry groups met each other. Now with our software, attendees can pre-select the top five industries that are most complimentary o their business. Seating is automatically arranged according to the participant’s preferences. The software idea really came out after our second event when we started thinking that it might not be that easy, because it’s not like dating. With speed-dating events, you have men and you have women. With business networking, you have many other variables. People want to be able to meet new people at every event, and like Sonia said, everybody’s got a different target. We want to make sure that we don’t have too many professionals from the same industry, that people meet who they want to meet and that participants meet a maximum number of new contacts. Plus, people shouldn’t be seated next to the individuals from the same industry group. The software’s strategic seating feature solves all of these problems and more. It makes facilitating a 5 Minute Networking event effortless.
How do I keep track of who I meet at an event? After the event, attendees can log onto the 5 Minute Networking web site and view the contact details and a business description of every person they met at the event. Information for events for the past 10 years is stored – providing 5 Minute Networking participants with their own personal online “yellow pages”. What are some of the applications of your software? Because our software is really about integrating people, there are so many applications. Our current clients range from chambers of commerce, university alumni associations and even nonprofit organizations. The software is also a great fit for conventions, hotel and conventions centers, and companies for corporate team-building events. The applications are pretty much endless.
Our software is patent pending with the U.S. Government, and there are a few hundred different applications for it. So this is just the tip of the iceberg for us. Tell me about facilitators. Who is your ideal facilitator, and what kind of a deal do you make with him or her?
We license the software to organizations looking to increase the level and quality of interaction among their members, but also to individuals looking to generate revenue by holding 5 Minute Networking events. We set up the pricing of the software so that it is “per-person per-event.” So whether it is a chamber of commerce or an individual running an event, it is revenue-generating. So they are providing a service, and then they are also generating revenue off of it, and it’s all figured out for them? We refer to individuals who license the software as event directors. Normally event directors have another business and facilitate 5 Minute Networking events on the side. It is a way for them to promote their regular business, but instead of walking up to someone and saying, “ Hi my name is Sonia and I sell pens - do you want to buy one?” (then watch as they cover up their wallets), they are saying, “Hi, I would like to invite you to a 5 Minute Networking event, and you are going to get to meet 20 professionals one-on-one for five minutes that you will be able to pre-select and, by the way, I sell pens…” So they are integrating themselves in their communities, getting visibility and kind of tagging on to the success and the branding of the 5 Minute Networking.
Because event directors are software licensees, they have complete control over the ticket price they charge. There is a certain amount of room for creativity because they are licensing the software from us as opposed to working for us.
What makes 5 Minute Networking so much fun and so much easier? I think it is because busy business professionals make so many business decisions on a daily basis, they really enjoy having a bell ring and to moving to the next person. It’s just a fun format. On a really basic level, there is energy from meeting 20 people that you didn’t know before. How often does that happen? And in a two-hour event? I would say never. You need a forum, and because it’s one-on-one, it really gives participants the opportunity to think outside the box. Even if they don’t compliment each others businesses directly, how can they be of service in other ways? When you’re not meeting one-on-one, you don’t get that same level of strategic networking. Do you prep people or advise people as how to prep for this? How do you prepare people to sell themselves within five minutes? During sign-in, participants receive a guest instruction sheet that gives them tips on what to do with their five minutes.
It’s kind of like your typical elevator speech. If you don’t have your elevator speech by the first introduction, by the 20th introduction you will have it down. 5 Minute Networking events are good practice for that. What kind of feedback have you gotten from people? Do you get any letters about business connections that have been made and profitable deals that have been struck? When we are at other networking events or at our own event – we get people walking up to us the entire time saying, “Oh, my gosh! Thank you so much! That guy that I met at your last event? I sold him a financial planning tactic.”
To give you an example, one of our clients -a chamber of commerce- just had its 5 Minute Networking event. The next morning they had a board of directors meeting, and six people stood up and said it was the best networking event they had ever been to. They just loved the concept. We got a phone call from the chamber’s CEO thanking us. You started this locally. How did you grow it nationally? We had so many people contact us via our web site, on a national and an international level. We have had e-mails from Sweden, Iran, Chile – all over the world.
Can you tell me the steps once you decided to take this bigger? What did you need to have in place?
We have a web site background, so we promote our website through pay-per-click advertising. With pay-per-click, you can set a budget for how much you want to spend on a monthly basis.
For us, our events are our best advertising/sales tool, as the feedback from every single event has been phenomenal. Rather than focusing on traditional advertising methods, we prefer grassroots methods such as press coverage, search engine placement and word of mouth. Chamber of commerce executives are constantly networking with each other: University alumni directors are constantly networking with each other. By creating win-win situation with your clients, your product or service is sure to spread.
Press coverage has also been instrumental in the growth of our business. Being in a national magazine such as this is phenomenal. Even being in your local newspaper is great – especially if the article is picked up by the wire service. That is great exposure. How do you prevent the facilitators that license your software from going off on a tangent that you do not want them to?
That is something that we’ve really haven’t had to worry about. We have developed a system which is easy to follow. The bottom line is that the 5 Minute Networking system works. It has been developed over hundreds of events. We give software licensees the 5 Minute Networking System “in a box.” This is something they can run with. Can you tell me what is in the box? Licensees receive the software and comprehensive user manual. The software pretty much does it all, from allowing licensees to print event form to strategic seating. Licensees also have access to a back-end web site that the general public cannot see. We also give licensees a variety of techniques relating to event planning and facilitating via our newsletter.
Our system provides practically everything licensees need to plan and facilitate 5 Minute Networking events - all forms, all table tents, all the utensils. With the software, all forms and table tents can be customized with the licensee’s logo.
They’re responsible for the printing, but because it is already there then the graphic standards will always be the same… Exactly. Everything that we produce from our brochures to folders to software to our marketing materials is extremely classy and high-end, and that is advantageous to our licensees. As far as sales, do you continue to rely on the website to get new customers or do you actively marketing more and more to other groups? Who are your targets now? The power of the Internet is phenomenal. We are currently looking for sales representatives on a national level to take over a certain districts. As far as our targets, we market to corporations, associations, chambers of commerce, meeting and association planners, trade shows, nonprofits, hotels and convention centers. What happens when you’ve licensed it everywhere? That would be wonderful. With each generation of the software, we are taking it to the next level. Our ideas are endless. There is a lot more development in the works, and upgraded editions will be released soon. We are always one step ahead of ourselves - that is for sure. Do you have a vision or a dream of where you want to be with this? Our dream for 5 Minute Networking is to have our events everywhere – from freshman orientation in high school to corporate team-building events all throughout someone’s life. That way a 70-year old could log on to our site and see details going back to the kids he met when he was a freshman in high school. To see a database of people you met everywhere - your apartment complex’s 5 Minute Networking event, the co-workers from your first job, business networking events you attended throughout all stages of your career and conferences you attend. I could go on and on. Are going to maintain that database endlessly? Yes, because it is not easy to meet people. One of the things that I love about this is that it helps people make connections with others. How did you think of all that? How did you unravel the layers of solutions? I guess the answer to that would just be doing the events ourselves. We have been in the trenches doing our events, facilitating them, dealing with all the challenges that would come up at the events, dealing with all the attendees and being a part of other networking events.
It comes from the feedback from the attendees out there. They are who we are looking to have come to our events, so we definitely stay on the same page with them. We take the feedback, we ask the questions – I mean they are our best resource to find out how we can make 5 Minute Networking events even better.
While searching for new and better ideas, Sonia and Melissa English raise the bar for themselves. Their competition faces a formidable opponent; prepared for today’s business and looking to improve tomorrow’s. The power of their vision, coupled with the networking skills they are perfecting, makes their business grow - quite literally - every 5 minutes.
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