It started with an opportunity of one person’s dream to start a new business in a town where he knew no one. Our founder found a business opportunity in the Home Inspection Industry in the Atlanta area.

The one thing he did was join a networking group that meets weekly to share referrals over lunch. Simple right, well no. First, there was no such thing as a free lunch and when it came time to join, he was broke. You see, joining membership required a commitment of time and money. He had all the time in the world but he had no money or contacts.

Fast forward, I not only joined but I was involved in growing the networking organization by opening other meeting locations to help other business professionals while growing my own. In 1999, I was approached by a friend who was trying to start a networking meeting (we met in a chapter I was growing in which he left to start his own meeting). He said, just sit in the meeting and let me know what you think. What I thought could not be put into words or in writing.

Being the good friend that I was, I joined and helped implement structure the meeting. What I witnessed was that most individuals didn’t like rules or be told what to do, which was the premise of this one group. I had to quickly make him realize that without structure or rules real business owners were not going to commit because their time was money. So, the one thing we had to do was respect others’ time.

Fast forward again, not only did we build one successful chapter the NGBC grow to multiple chapters, with 100’s of members, millions and millions of dollars in referral revenue, and with our vision, structure, and “game plan for success,” our members and our mission will continue to grow. 

What makes the NGBC great are the members and the passion they bring to want to help others and not just themselves. The NGBC provides the structure, format, and support to open and grow their chapters, their business, themselves professionally, personally, and their sales team.

Our unique style and format have also been used by other business networking and organizations (coping is a form of flattering) because our learning, sharing, and collaborating culture is what the future business model is becoming.