Network Local - A Lot More, Six tips to do more business in Your Own Backyard

I’ve been spending about 1/3 of my time on local Atlanta prospecting over the last few weeks. It’s already brought in three sizeable investments, one smaller one, and there are several more in our pipeline.

Below are a few tips that have helped lead to business for Gridline and have been meaningful personally and professionally.

#1 Reference Checks. Gridline is a known entity in Atlanta or can be easily known via some basic networking given that we have a who’s who of local investors at the company level as well as the reputations of our Chairman, Jon Hallett and CEO, Logan Henderson . See tip #1 in this article (https://bit.ly/3UvGP0K) re one way to make reference checks easy for people.?

#2 ASK for references. I’ve been blown away by the willingness of people to provide warm intros. Here is one from a local investor, and I quote: “As an investor [in Gridline], I love that you’re asking,” resulting in 14 introductions. I’ll write a post about asking for references and making it easy for people to make introductions.?

#3 Personally setting the stage helps. I have been very involved in several very local communities (neighborhood, schools, faith) and two local professional organizations. It gives me talking points when engaging with influential and wealthy individuals who are generally interested in seeing Atlanta-based organizations do better.?

#4 Professionally setting the stage helps. I’ve been helping Gridline improve its local presence via sponsorship and participation in many educational and community-oriented initiatives. I now include a final (5th) bullet point along these lines in how we differ from competitors when engaging with local wealth managers.??

#5 I wrote an ode to Atlanta (12 Reasons to Put Atlanta on your Map NOW https://bit.ly/44UZmc5) a few months back that I use for speaking points. I sometimes share it as a fun little follow-up and engenders hometown pride. I’ve recently shared it with people in Detroit, Charlotte, Denver, and Austin who have been jazzed about their own hometowns. No matter where you live, it’s an idea to strike up conversations with local people who can help and it's fun to brag a little nationally.?

#6 Increased networking at the city and regional level and have been blown away by private, hybrid, and public initiatives making Atlanta an even better place. The first picture is from the Atlanta Regional Commission ’s annual update. This organization is driving billions of federal dollars to local communities. I didn’t see a single investment firm, but I ran into people from the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta (1.4B Foundation) and the Metro Atlanta Chamber . My favorite conversation was with Ken Stockdell of the Georgia World Congress Center Authority , where the event was taking place. He told me about the big plans for the 225-acre campus. The picture below is the soon-to-open 希尔顿全球酒店集团 Insignia hotel right next to Mercedes-Benz Stadium . It’s like the Las Vegas Strip arrived in downtown Atlanta and had me doing a major double-take.

What’s next, next, and next Atlanta??And who else wants to talk about it and Alternative investments?