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Restaurant / Food Service: Best Referral Sources

Who should be sending you clients, and the rooms they are already sitting in. Tell us where you are and we will send the list.

Get your list

The rooms for restaurants, the next meeting dates, and who to ask for when you walk in.

Start here

Your one-page action plan

Five partners, what starts the work for each one, and the three rooms to be in. Print it and keep it in the car.

Networking plan: Restaurant / Food Service

The five people who should be sending you clients

  1. CPA / Accountant (They send you work)
    Shared trigger: somebody starts a company
  2. Commercial Property Manager (Two-way)
    Shared trigger: a business signs a lease or opens a location
  3. Attorney Business & Corporate (Two-way)
    Shared trigger: a business signs a lease or opens a location
  4. Community Association Manager (HOA / Condo) (Two-way)
    Shared trigger: an inspection or compliance deadline lands
  5. Facility Manager (Two-way)
    Shared trigger: an inspection or compliance deadline lands

The three rooms to be in

  1. Your city or county chamber of commerce: Your partners are in this room: CPAs, commercial property managers, and business attorneys.
  2. LinkedIn groups & local B2B communities: Your partners are in this room: CPAs, business attorneys, and facility managers.
  3. CAI (Community Associations Institute): Your partners are in this room: community association managers and structural engineers.

Don't confuse this with networking: Restaurant & lodging association. Learning and supplier access, not referrals.

The people

Who should be sending you clients

Ranked by what starts the job, not by who sounds close to your trade. When something happens that makes people need restaurants, who else gets a call that same week?

Match strength is how much of your work starts from the same event as theirs, scored out of 100. Higher means you are more often called into the same job in the same week.

  1. 1 CPA / Accountant They send you work Trigger: somebody starts a company 75 match strength out of 100
  2. 2 Commercial Property Manager Two-way Trigger: a business signs a lease or opens a location 73 match strength out of 100
  3. 3 Attorney Business & Corporate Two-way Trigger: a business signs a lease or opens a location 70 match strength out of 100
  4. 4 Community Association Manager (HOA / Condo) Two-way Trigger: an inspection or compliance deadline lands 68 match strength out of 100
  5. 5 Facility Manager Two-way Trigger: an inspection or compliance deadline lands 65 match strength out of 100
  6. 6 Commercial Kitchen Equipment & Service You send them work Trigger: a business signs a lease or opens a location 62 match strength out of 100
  7. 7 Commercial Real Estate Broker Two-way Trigger: a business signs a lease or opens a location 62 match strength out of 100
  8. 8 IT Services / Managed IT You send them work Trigger: a business signs a lease or opens a location 60 match strength out of 100
  9. 9 Structural Engineer They send you work Trigger: an inspection or compliance deadline lands 60 match strength out of 100
  10. 10 Insurance Property & Casualty You send them work Trigger: a business signs a lease or opens a location 56 match strength out of 100

Knowing the names is half of it. We will send the list with what to say to each one. Send me my list ↑

The rooms

Where those people actually are

Ranked by how many of your best partners are in the room, and how much work each one can send you. Give someone nine choices and they pick none, so we have marked the one to start with.

  1. 1 Your city or county chamber of commerce Your pick Your partners are in this room: CPAs, commercial property managers, and business attorneys. Chamber of commerce · Monthly · Under $500/yr · ~4 hrs/month Chapter finder →
  2. 2 LinkedIn groups & local B2B communities Your partners are in this room: CPAs, business attorneys, and facility managers. Online community · Always on · Free · ~3 hrs/month Chapter finder →
  3. 3 CAI (Community Associations Institute) Your partners are in this room: community association managers and structural engineers. Your partners' association · Monthly · Under $500/yr · ~4 hrs/month Chapter finder →
  4. 4 Vistage Your partners are in this room: CPAs, business attorneys, and IT and managed service providers. Paid peer group · Monthly · $2,000+/yr · ~8 hrs/month Chapter finder →
  5. 5 Software & platform user groups Your partners are in this room: facility managers and IT and managed service providers. Vendor & supply chain · Quarterly · Free · ~2 hrs/month
  6. 6 BOMA (Building Owners and Managers Association) Your partners are in this room: commercial property managers and commercial real estate brokers. Your partners' association · Monthly · $500–$2,000/yr · ~4 hrs/month Chapter finder →
  7. 7 BNI One seat per category, so your competitors are excluded by rule and the seats around you are the partners above. Structured referral group · Weekly · $500–$2,000/yr · ~8 hrs/month · One seat per category Chapter finder →
  8. 8 LeTip International One seat per category, so your competitors are excluded by rule and the seats around you are the partners above. Structured referral group · Weekly · $500–$2,000/yr · ~7 hrs/month · One seat per category Chapter finder →
The competitor trap

Restaurant & lodging association

Most restaurants join this room first. It is also the one most likely to be the wrong pick. Everyone in it does what you do. Join it for the training, the licenses, and the ties to manufacturers. Do not join it for referrals, and do not join it instead of the rooms above.

Let us be straight with you. For restaurants, a weekly referral group is not the best pick. Your partners gather in professional groups instead, so spend your time there. We would rather say that than sell you a seat you do not need.

These rooms meet on real dates. We will send you the next ones for your area. Send me the dates ↑

Your seat

Is your seat open?

Prime Time takes one Restaurant / Food Service per chapter. Put a South Florida ZIP into the form above and we will show you which seats are open.

Add your ZIP code in the form above to see which seats are open. Go to the form ↑

Want this as a list you can act on?

Send it to yourself: the partners above, the rooms ranked for restaurants, and the next meeting dates for your area.

Send me my list