Success in Atlanta Comes to Those Who Share
Members of a designers’ networking group in Atlanta regularly do what few design professionals elsewhere in the country ever do.
Share.
Sure, other designers talk and mingle and socialize. But they don’t support and exchange business-building ideas with one another as do members of the Atlanta Designers Network (ADN).
The group dates back 15 years, when a group of designers joined together to increase their buying power with furniture, fabric and other manufacturers.
The collaboration soon went beyond collective bargaining, as members began bonding and helping each other grow their businesses.
“A lot of designers see each other as the enemy,” observes April Jarvis, the group’s vice president of programs. “We’re not out to compete with each other. We’re out to share resources.”
And share they do, everything from contacts to contracts, from business tools to business techniques.
I shared some advanced sales and marketing strategies with the group when they brought me in to speak recently. I was impressed with the caliber and experience of the members.
ADN’s 37 members are successful, high end professionals with between 20 and 30 years experience, mostly in residential design.
Those interested in joining the Designers Network have to be invited by a member to do so. In addition, they must be “ethical”, give references (including clients and other designers) and be unaffiliated with a retail store.
And, they have to commit to missing no more than two meetings a year.
I believe their share-and-share-alike attitude has a lot to do with the success of its members.
As April Jarvis puts it: “We come together, learn together and grow together.”
