With his e-newsletter, the Networking Loop, Christopher Pollock, a third-year business student at Bowie State University, is taking the oft-repeated saying “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know” to the Internet and becoming the essential link that helps small business owners connect.
Each week Pollock sends subscribers a list of future breakfast, lunch and dinner events where small business owners and entrepreneurs can find out about opportunities to market their products and services, and informal settings in which they can meet potential partners and clients.
He profiles local business owners and provides a venue for them to advertise services, special offers and events. Pollock says that he will soon offer event planning and email promotion services.
Since its August launch, Pollock has signed up 2,000 subscribers, largely among the robust small business community of Prince George’s County, Md. He projects that number to grow to 3,000 by year-end.
Pollock says it can be difficult for entrepreneurs and small business owners to learn about the region’s professional networking events. His subscribers want this information, and all indicators point toward taking the concept, a retooled idea discarded from a friend and small business owner, to the market now.
“This is the second dot-com boom, and the dollars right now are in advertising,” the 20-year-old said in between shaking hands and chatting up business professionals during a recent networking event sponsered by the Prince George’s Chamber of Commerce.
Taking clues from his subscribers, Pollock plans to expand the Networking Loop into neighboring Washington, D.C., and Virginia. “I want all 50 states,” he says. He knows that the venture will take work and says he is ready for the challenge.
