About 15 months ago, I moved back to Skokie to grow our family business. My father, Moshe Klein, has been an accountant for almost 30 years and has focused on helping individuals on getting their financial house in order. Together we developed a small business model that our clients love. (We become our client's business office and handle their bookkeeping, accounting, and taxes for under $99 / monthly -- no hourly fees).
As a kid, I always hung out at my father’s office but never imagined I would end up in the family business. That said, I was the only 3’rd grader that had a budget… I obviously picked a few things up during the late nights “working” at the office. 20 years later, I came back to grow our already successful firm, and needed to figure out how to successfully reach the business community.
I realized something – when you are out there connecting people, people connect you! I started meeting many business owners, job seekers, neighbors, friends, and family for coffee (yes, I love Starbucks) and finding out who they are looking to meet. Having developed a large Rolodex / Blackberry, filled with contacts in all industries, I'm now considered a valuable resource and connector. More than two dozen calls come in daily from friends and strangers around the country asking if I know someone that specializes in this or that. Just yesterday, a client asked if I can recommend someone to fight their red-light violation.
Today, I still network all day, every day, but many of those connections that I made a year ago are “working” for me. They are putting me in touch with contacts that I may benefit from meeting. It is a common thing to see people that have gotten jobs or are doing business, thanks to that “Cup of Joe” that I had a while back.
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Shalom Klein is the Business Director of Moshe Klein & Associates, Ltd., a Skokie-based accounting firm that provides low cost bookkeeping, accounting, and tax services for small businesses. A tireless networker, he founded Jewish B2B Networking, which plans and hosts events for small businesses in the Midwest. He is also the publisher of Jewish Business News, a new magazine with distribution of 15,000 in the Chicago area. Shalom can be reached at 773-904-0102, shalom@mkabusiness.com and at @SYKlein.
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