Networking Groups

[Foof]

The Naturopath in my clinic started an "Integrative Medicine" network this last December ('04), to help with business, give everyone a strong alliance, and to promote education amongst other practitioners. Almost everyone in the group has tried BNI or joined the local Chamber of Commerce or something to boost their business. Not everyone has had success with their efforts (increased client base/exposure) because the BNI group is too small or the Chamber doesn't advertise much or very well, etc...So we meet bi-weekly and have a 90 minute meeting - structured similarly to BNI. Everyone gets a 90 second intro, the committees give reports, and there's one 15-20 minute talk by a single practitioner or two might get together and spread their time out for two meetings. So far I have received at least 5-6 new clients out of this group, which is great! We have an excellent mix of people in the group: an M.D. who practices family medicine with homeopathy and a real slant towards natural medicine; a chiropractor, a naturopath, a clinical hypnotherapist, several massage therapists (each with their own specialty), a life coach, yoga instructor, and a local health food store owner.I wanted to share this with you all to encourage you to network. We're still a small group and dealing with growing pains and the management but the support of these other professionals has been very encouraging. We are actually integrating our natural modalities with medical doctors, nurses and physician's assistants. And I can't tell you how nice it is to be backed up by several MDs, the knowledge I've gleaned from their advanced education and their interest in natural medicine is so encouraging.Anyone else have a success story about their networking group?