I was planning to stay in the San Diego area for a while, so I knew I needed to meet people in the business community. My plan was simple; spend two hours at the networking event, hand out a minimum of twenty personal business cards, talk about my work experience when able, and then grab dinner. One of my side focuses at these events is to never, ever over stay my welcome.

                As the end of my two hours was quickly approaching, I saw these two women cracking jokes and clearly knowing how to have a good time. I moved to introduce myself and found out they were from this promo company in San Diego. They turn other companies’ promo items into clever marketing products that will help assign a branding advantage over their competitors; hence the company name: Clever Advantage. They had the coolest logo, using the same ‘V’ for both words. And, as it turns out, one of the two is from the Bay Area and the other one is from Montreal, which is rather close to where I grew up, so we had lots to talk and laugh about. They were certainly the highlight of my networking evening, and as my dad always told me, ‘always leave on a high note.’ So I did. I hit the street, heading off to dinner.

                Over the course of the next few weeks, maybe a month, we traded some work emails. It was evident their style of work was similar to my own – have fun and do a good job — it seemed like a good opportunity. I knew that my entrepreneurial marketing experience, although not as vast as theirs, was present, so I took a shot and bounced some ideas their way.

And now, suddenly, here I am offering ideas and creating promo products.

Well, I should wrap up here, so feel free to contact me with any stories like this or ideas for business because I never find myself too busy for any type of referral. bobby@cleverpromotionalproducts.com.