Most people wake up in the morning five days a week, grab some breakfast and coffee and head to work.
Every Wednesday roughly 30 people gather in the upstairs ballroom in the Hewlett firehouse and make business connections, and in most cases friendships.
Breakfast Connect, considered the largest networking group in the Five Towns, according to leader Andrew Liebowitz, meets for 60 or so minutes from 8 to 9 a.m., which includes businesses from those communities as well as surrounding ones such as Lynbrook, Oceanside and Rockville Centre.
“When you do meet every week you build relationships, it’s hard when you don’t,” Liebowitz said as he began the Jan. 8 meeting that included a dozen exhibitors.
He noted that many of the people who are part of Breakfast Connect were members of the original Business Network International group that began in the Five Towns in 2004. A decade later him and several others formed a free networking group — BNI charges members — that has met in a number of different locations, including the Woodmere Club and Bagel Boss in Hewlett.
“The idea of free networking is important, it’s something we’re proud of,” Liebowitz said. At Breakfast Connect you can dress how you want. We don’t take referrals in this group, referrals are earned.”
Meeting every week, he added is a plus and the best way to build relationships.
“Every week we get to speak, talk about each other’s business, ways to help each other, and become more referable,” Liebowitz said. “We’re a friendly group, along the way we’ve made friendships and everyone is close in this group.”
It is not mandatory to attend every week, but attending on a regular basis is recommended, he added.
Stephen Marks, an executive recruiter who works from home, said he belongs to Breakfast Connect to socialize with other business people.
“I see it as a place of learning and meeting new people,” the East Rockaway resident said at that Wednesday meeting. “It’s engaging.”
Looking to expand his Lynbrook-based We Fix 516 construction business, John Muscat attended his first Break Fast Connect meeting.
“I want to meet people and get the word out in the neighborhood,” he said, adding that being a part of a group will “change the day up a little bit.” “Right now it’s word of mouth and I want to get things going and push it a little more.”
Audrey Reiman, vice president of First National Bank of Long Island in Hewlett, equated being involved with the networking group to providing good customer service as she said he bank do.
“We answer the phone on the first or second ring,” she said touting her bank’s ability to service their customers. “We what to spread the word to everyone that are a real community bank.”
Liebowitz likes to say, “To resist is business missed.”
“It’s family first, business second and networking third,” he said about the group’s outlook on life’s priorities. “Things happen.”
To connect, go to BreakfastConnect.com.