Make a Referral Week 2009 is March 9-13. This is one tiny effort to make a dent in this recession and shine a light on the efforts and impact of one small business helping another.

The goal of the event is to generate 1000 referrals for 1000 deserving businesses.

During the week this blog will be taken over by guest contributions and audio interviews with folks like Andy Sernovitz, Guy Kawasaki, Pam Slim, Rich Sloan, Anita Campbell, Scott Ginsburg, Michael Port and Jill Konrath all focused on telling you how to generate more business by way of referral.

In addition, I am hosting a live web conference on Tuesday, March 10 at Noon CST featuring Bob Burg, author of the Go-Giver, Ivan Misner, founder of BNI and Bill Cates, author of Get More Referrals Now. This is the A-Team when it comes to teaching the strategies of referral! Register here for this event.

Here’s how you do your part:
1) Think about the referral(s) you are going to make
2) Make your referrals – (you don’t have to wait until March 9 to do this)
3) Visit the Make a Referral Week Referral Counter page and tell us who you referred and why in the comments – feel free to add URLs so others can learn about the business you referred.
4) Take in all the great educational content all week – tweet about it #marw09
5) Bask in the glow of small business coolness!

In this referral story from Tamara Rose at Earthly Delights Day Spa, she tells of a client that was experiencing challenges getting pregnant. When Tamara’s Reiki practice provided her with results she began to tell others that her husband had been trying to get her pregnant for years and Tamara finally did it. On top of being a cute story, this demonstrates the power of emotional connection when it comes to motivating referrals.

Listen to Tamara’s referral story:

Share and record your referral stories by calling our Make a Referral Week hotline – (214) 615-6505 ext 6998