HOLLYWOOD, Md. – Since 2015, St. Mary’s Business Partners (SMBP) has helped many St. Mary’s County based businesses achieve their entrepreneurial goals as a referral based networking group.
According to SMBP’s official website, “We strive to help each other’s businesses grow through qualified hot referrals through a trusted business partnership. We are made up of one person per industry or professional classification, but all businesses are welcome to visit us.”
SMBP currently consists of Accounting Services, Business Consulting, Commercial Insurance, Veterinary Services, IT/Computer Repair, Photography Services, Travel Agent and much more! You can view the entire SMBP business directory by clicking here.
SMBP had over 50 businesses in its group before COVID. Obviously, due to the struggles of this period, this certainly affected their numbers. However, SMBP has recovered, with the group now having nearly 30 businesses.
SMBP also tracks the economic value of the exchange of business and referrals within the group. Their highest total on record was approximately $1.5 million. So when it comes to how effective the group’s process actually is, they have the data to back it up.
The group meets weekly on Thursdays from 8am to 9:30am. If you are interested in joining the group, they still have plenty of openings for businesses that are currently unaccounted for!
Businesses such as electrical, hairdressing, handyman services, cleaners, landscaping, roofing, HVAC, event planning, attorneys, commercial real estate, flooring, painting and many more still have openings!
If you are interested in joining SMBP, click here to fill out their form. They have an annual membership fee of $200.
“I think for a new business, we offer such a great foundation for someone coming in who might be asking, ‘How do I do an LLC?’ or ‘How do I get out there, how do I sell?'” I mean every new business that I sit down with , I tell them to come on here and at least talk to other businesses. I tell people, “I’m not big enough, I don’t have an HR department, I don’t have an advertising department.” So sometimes I’m sitting in my office and I just don’t know how to advertise? What will hit people? Then I come in here and I can throw the idea around and I get some amazing ideas,” said Mary Slade, an accountant, during one of their meetings.
“It even helps with things like human resources, or how to hire, or employee contracts. As a small business I am on my own. I mean, I have a great staff, but I don’t have that back office support. So it’s so helpful to be able to come in here and reject certain people’s ideas. I think that’s such a great value of SMBP that really sets it apart from other organizations.”
“We were a small group of people who were originally a BNI networking group. BNI is focused on larger businesses and they have a higher membership fee. And we as a core group of people have decided that membership fees are not affordable for the startup small business owner. So we parted ways with BNI and started our own networking group that focuses on small businesses with membership fees that the original business owner can afford. We’ve had to institute a quarterly service fee since then, but that’s our story, focusing on small businesses.”
To learn more about SMBP and how they can help your business, click here to visit their website.
To find out more about advertising and how we can help promote your business, email our Account Manager Nick at [email protected]
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