Friday, November 16, 2012

Small Business Conventions...Is It Worth Going?

I had the honor of being able to go to the Small Business Expo in Los Angles, CA November 8th, 2012.  

Booths galore!  Big business contenders were there such as:
Yelp!                          New York Life
Verizon                     Wells Fargo
GoDaddy                   Staples
Vonage                       Intuit

But there were businesses there that I hadn't even thought possible.  Entrepreneurship galore!  People like the GoogFather, who helps your SEO.  WebcommercialPro, who help you make a commercial for YouTube.  Wow!  People putting it out there and being successful.  Inspiring!

Our sales guys talked to everybody.  People came to us wanting to know what we did and how we could help them.  I did not have the corporate competition vibe.  These were people providing a service and making contacts.  Yes, we made connections.  Yes, we are out there to sell our product.  Yes, these conventions are totally a marketing reach-out.  But what I got the most out of it was the vibe.  

People were very excited about our services.  I got to meet people I never would have known about much less get to market to.  This got me enthusiastic about business.  

We hear so much about how big businesses are doing bad things that you get the feeling that every business is bad.  Except ProspectDB--those guys are cool! (Shameless plug)

But, I didn't get the seedy I just want to sell you shit vibe.  It was energizing to see so many people walking around, coming up to the booth and asking--"What do you sell?  What can you do for me?"  Awesome!  Potential client.  It seemed to be about making contact and looking at options up close.  

Or maybe they were drawn by the candy and pretty ladies!  Yeah, actually that was it!

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