Tips and strategies to make the most of your networking opportunities and how to grow your business
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Hey everyone! Jon Marshall here, owner of Suncoast NPI. When local business owners across Hillsborough, Pasco, and Pinellas ask me where to invest their time to grow, the conversation usually turns to how they actually like to meet people. Some swear by happy hour mixers and casual meetup groups. Others prefer sharp, agenda-driven morning meetings. Both environments bring people together, but if your goal is generating bottom-line results, they operate on completely different engines. Let’s look at casual networking first. These are your typical open-room mixers, business card exchanges, and u
Hey everyone! Jon Marshall here, owner of Suncoast NPI. As our local business community continues to thrive across Hillsborough, Pasco, and Pinellas, I see new members make the exact same mistake every single month. They step into a room full of local owners, drop off a stack of cards, and expect the phone to start ringing off the hook by Friday afternoon. The reality is that referrals are built on trust, and trust takes time to build. However, if you are strategic, you can accelerate that process without taking shortcuts. Building credibility in a group isn’t about having the slickest elevato
Hey everyone! Jon Marshall here, owner of Suncoast NPI. When people join a business group, they usually focus a lot of energy on the weekly chapter meeting. They prepare their infomercial, show up ready to connect, and work on being visible in the room. All of that matters. The weekly meeting keeps the chapter connected. But the one-to-one is where the relationship gets deeper. A one-to-one is a focused conversation between two members of a chapter. It can happen over coffee, lunch, at an office, or even by phone when schedules are tight. The purpose is simple: get to know each other personall
Hey everyone! Jon Marshall here, owner of Suncoast NPI. As I visit chapters throughout Tampa, Clearwater, and Pasco County, I notice a massive difference between groups that just get by and groups that absolutely crush it. The highest-performing groups don’t just have better businesses in the room; they have a completely different atmosphere. They possess an underlying energy that drives everything they do. That secret weapon is culture. Culture is the feeling people get when they walk into the room. It is how members welcome a visitor, how they speak about one another out in the community, an
Hey everyone! Jon Marshall here, owner of Suncoast NPI. When business owners look at local marketing options across Tampa, Clearwater, and up into Pasco County, they usually look at two main choices: a local Chamber of Commerce or a structured referral group. Both can be valuable, and they often serve businesses in different ways. The key is understanding what each one is designed to do, so you can invest your time and energy where it best supports your goals. A Chamber of Commerce is a wonderful place to build community presence. Chambers often bring together a wide range of business owners,
Hey everyone! Jon Marshall here, owner of Suncoast NPI. As our business community keeps growing across Hillsborough, Pasco, and Pinellas, I see new members come into chapters with great energy, great intentions, and a real desire to make connections. That excitement matters. It gets people started. But the members who build the strongest referral relationships understand something important: networking works best when it becomes a steady commitment, not a short burst of activity. Building a business through referrals is a process. It takes time for fellow members to know who you are, what you
Hey everyone! Jon Marshall here, owner of Suncoast NPI. When business owners look at their return on investment for marketing, their first instinct is to pull up a spreadsheet and compare the cost of their membership against the dollar amount of closed revenue. Tracking your sales data is absolutely necessary, but looking only at immediate closed deals gives you an incomplete picture of your true return. In our communities across Tampa, Clearwater, and Pasco County, the real value of a structured network shows up in several ways that a simple cash register can’t measure. To understand the full
Hey everyone! Jon Marshall here, owner of Suncoast NPI. When I talk to small business owners throughout Tampa, Clearwater, and up into Pasco County, I hear the same question all the time. Between managing inventory, handling payroll, and taking care of daily operations, your time is stretched thin. You want to know if spending time at a networking meeting is actually worth your energy. My answer is always “maybe.” Tampa Bay is the most networked area in the world, I like to say. You can find a breakfast, lunch, dinner, or social event any day of the week in Tampa. But the important question is
Hey everyone! Jon Marshall here, owner of Suncoast NPI. As our business community across Hillsborough, Pasco, and Pinellas counties continues to expand, I see a lot of entrepreneurs making the mistake of looking for referrals in all the wrong places. They think that every single person they meet is a potential source of business. The reality is, your time is valuable, and you need to be strategic. To maximize your return on your time investment, you must learn how to identify your ideal referral partner. An ideal referral partner is a fellow member who naturally crosses paths with your target
Hey everyone! Jon Marshall here, owner of Suncoast NPI. As our business community across Tampa, Clearwater, and up into Pasco County experiences this incredible momentum, I hear a lot of people throwing around the word “referral.” The problem is, many professionals use it when they are actually talking about a lead. There is a massive difference between the two, and understanding that difference determines whether your networking efforts produce real revenue or just a lot of wasted time. At Suncoast NPI, we focus exclusively on the gold standard: the qualified referral. A qualified referral is
