»News from the Crescenta Valley Chamber of Commerce

Getting to Know You

“The successful networkers I know, the ones receiving tons of referrals and feeling truly happy about themselves, continually put the other person’s needs ahead of their own.” –Bob Burg

The Crescenta Valley Chamber of Commerce and Caspian Services, Inc. are bringing you a fantastic way to network and meet people that you can get to know to see if you can help them and thus help yourself.

On Wednesday, Aug. 10 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. is our business mixer at Caspian Services, Inc., located at 2946 Honolulu Ave. in La Crescenta.

Caspian Services is a website design studio serving the Crescenta Valley offering small business web design, web development, graphic design and printing.  They are an employee-owned corporation and seek to offer innovative solutions for today’s businesses. At Caspian Services, Inc., their passion is helping companies realize the potential of the Internet. They are here to identify your business needs and find creative ways for you to achieve better sales, provide better service and to continue to grow in a competitive market.

An additional way to grow your business, besides working with Caspian Services on your Internet presence, is to join us at the Caspian Services mixer.

The experts say that a networking event can be a fantastic occasion to find what you have in common with other people there. Commonalities help strangers connect more easily. You should take the initiative to approach others, introduce yourself and share a piece of information that could reveal the common thread you share with them. During conversations you should listen carefully to discover shared interests or goals and use these to sustain conversations.

To avoid being tongue-tied when you try to start a conversation with someone you don’t know, prepare a self-introduction that is clear, interesting and well delivered. Some experts call this the “elevator speech.” An elevator speech is as essential as a business card. You need to be able to say who you are, what you do, what you are interested in doing and how you can be a resource to your listeners in 30 seconds – the time between floors in an elevator. If you don’t have an elevator speech, people won’t know what you really do. And if it is more than 20 to 30 seconds, people will tune out.

So tune up your elevator speech and practice it while getting to know everyone at our mixer at Caspian Services on Aug. 10.

Important dates: Aug. 10 – Business mixer at Caspian Services; Sept. 6 – Dine Out Night at Giuseppe’s Pizzeria; Sept. 7 – Business mixer at Kumon Math & Reading; Sept. 14 – Foothills Community Business Expo.

Please contact our office for more details on any event. How to reach us:  (818) 248-4957 / crescentachamber@aol.com / www.LaCrescenta.org / 3131 Foothill Blvd., Ste. D.

Julia Rabago is the executive director of Crescenta Valley Chamber of Commerce.