I do not know if you guys know about meetup but I have joined several groups in our local area that have helped me build relationships as well as my business.

I particularly like:
- Working moms group
- WIRE ( women in real estate)
- Small business meetings

You need to put in your city and find a good group that fits your needs and if they don't have one you can create one. We meet online for a specific interest and then meet locally. And the best part is that it is FREE!!!

I like Meetup too. I have been attending an Entrepreneurs Meetup for about a year now. They recently added some more small business Meetups in our area too I plan to too.

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Rebecka Melson
Virtual Business Services

I belong to a local one. I've gone to a few meetings when they have had speakers. I haven't gotten any business from going but the meetings are informative. No offense, but I find that people looking for these "free" events all the time aren't really to pay for my services.. at least in my general area. So I try to network more at events where there is some payment to come.. even if its five dollars.

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Tamika R. Johnson, MBA, Principal
administrative partners, llc
www.administrativepartners.net | http://adminpartners.blogspot.com

That's funny, Tamika, I was going to just point out that not all the Meetups are free, lol. The local entrepreneurs meetup here has a base charge of $10 to attend any of their meetings on top of any supper costs you incur. The obvious reasoning behind this charge is Meetup.com actually charges their organizers a fee to be an organizer, so it's understandable that they pass on some of those costs to those who are benefiting. I haven't had an opportunity to attend a meeting yet as they have moved the meetings to quite a distant location for me, but I am still hoping to attend one of the other meetups.

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Kate V. Kerans, Virtual Paralegal
Kerans Virtual Assistance More tasks than time? We can help!
Your Virtual Paralegal Blog

I have made some great connections with people from the meetups! It is about building relationships and in our area it is a matter of who you know or who they might be able to introduce you to. And like Kate said...not all of the meetups are free.

I will def be looking into this

I think that netowrking is the greatest form of marketing and getting new clients- I am in the process of looking for local groups

Anyone in perth western australia have any ideas??

Thanks

you could try doing a search on google for women in business or other forums in your niche

If you go to Meetup.com, it enables you to do a search based on your location of local meetup groups. A quick search of 'Perth, Australia' garnered the following group: The Perth Small Business Meetup which looks to have a meetup scheduled for September 24th.

An additional search under 'Networking groups Business, Perth, AU also garnered the following BNI organization which has its own website here and a neat site and forum (FREE!) devoted to local Perth home-based businesses located here. It's amazing what there is to find on the Web, good luck!

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Kate V. Kerans, Virtual Paralegal
Kerans Virtual Assistance More tasks than time? We can help!
Your Virtual Paralegal Blog

Thanks heaps for them

How lazy for me not to do a search like that- am looking further into it now

Thanks again

I attend a monthly Real Estate Meetup which has 30 - 50 attendees. There is a short presentation each meeting and a chance to network. I exchange business cards and send a follow-up email to anyone I meet. It is an excellent source of business as the attendees are generally more motivated to succeed in their business and are looking for ways to streamline their business as they get busier.

An added bonus is that when you Google my name my profile on the Meetup web site is the third entry. For this reason alone you should go to Meetup.com and find a relevant local Meetup.