BCBusiness

JULY/AUGUST 2017 BCBUSINESS 115 BCBUSINESS.CA with help from friends he'd known most of his life. They referred clients to him and happy clients referred more, but he was only working one or two small projects at a time. "I had been in that little circle of my friends and family, and that's how my little business was chug- ging along," Wainwright says. However, he realized that needed to get into some bigger circles to succeed. "That's when I joined the Home Build- ers' Association," Wainwright says. "And I joined the Better Business Bureau. I started to go to their social functions. And I started to go to their meetings." At his rst Greater Vancouver Home Build- ers' Association meeting, Wainwright met a painting fran- chise owner who told him about Business Net- work International ( BNI). "When he told me they meet at 6:30 in the morn- ing, I thought that was crazy," he recalls. "But I was at a point where I needed to change." BNI is a business refer- ral and networking orga- nization with chapters in 65 countries, includ- ing more than 60 in B.C. Each chapter has a few dozen members (Wainwright's has 62), and each member represents a diŽerent type of business, so there's no competition within the group. Members meet once a week for 90 min- utes. Wainwright credits his BNI group for launching his business forward with new referrals and much-needed advice. "In that room of 62 people, there's so much experience," he says. "It's about being able to talk to people about how to get over hurdles and milestones." Not every business is suited for BNI—if you don't rely on local referrals for busi- ness, you'll get little bene t. But there are other networking groups for any kind of business. Finding the perfect adviser Most businesses will run into roadblocks that can't be overcome with only infor- mal help from peers. Some problems require specialized expertise to solve, especially as companies grow larger and the issues become more complex. When you're seeking out paid consultants or advisers, Belenkie recommends asking people in your network for references. Don't be swayed by credentials like an MBA from a fancy school, he says. The best advisers are those who have taken companies where you want yours to go. "If a person has real experience doing something, the advice is different," Belenkie explains. "They know real- world pitfalls. They know where things go sideways." Imagine you want to open a yoga stu- dio. The perfect adviser, Belenkie says, would be someone who has opened one in a similar environ- ment, with the same ethnic, socioeconomic and demographic brack- ets as the one you're planning to start, and who exited the business the same way you hope to exit. Nobody will be a better resource than someone who walked the exact path you're setting out on and now just wants to help others follow. "Those people exist," Belenkie says. "They are hard to nd, is the thing, but they are worth their weight in gold." Most of the time, though, entrepre- neurs will be looking for help in speci c areas of their business rather than a guru to guide them through their entire jour- ney. So the ideal advisers are people who have targeted expertise in those areas. Paul Drohan has more than 25 years' experience in the life sciences sector and holds a handful of titles including stra- tegic adviser for Vancouver-based bio- tech startup Cyon Therapeutics Inc. But Drohan had little experience raising ven- ture capital, so late last year he turned to Belenkie's $2000 CoŽee to help him nd investors for Cyon. š "I was looking for someone that had venture capital experience—as a ven- ture capitalist," Drohan says, "to help me understand what venture capitalists would be looking for as we put together a road show to try and raise money." Belenkie connected Drohan with one "If a person has real experience, the advice is dierent. They know real-world pitfalls. They know where things go sideways" — Neil Belenkie, The $2000 Coee

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