Utah's Catholic businesses grow network

Intermountain Catholic

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Since a reorganization last summer, the Catholic Business Network has grown from about 25 members to 72, and its members are reaping the benefits.

"As a grassroots organization, CBN started out as Catholic businesspeople trying to help one another do business in a business climate that wasn’t always friendly to Catholics," said John Puhr, chair of CBN’s board of directors. "There’s a real need in the community here in Utah for Catholics to spend some time getting to know each other and to share our opportunities for business and for employment."

CBN set three goals: To develop contacts and relationships that would result in increased business and employment opportunities for its members; to promote ethical business practices and Catholic values in the workplace as well as help members develop better managerial and leadership skills; and to find ways to give back to community as organization grows, Puhr said.

To meet these goals, CBN has hosted quarterly dinners with speakers who are experts in a business field. In August, in response to members’ requests, the organization implemented a monthly networking luncheon. "Our members wanted more ways to connect and more ways to continue to build relationships with fellow members," said Jennifer Hurst, CBN’s marketing director.

Those relationships help build business, said Craig Franco, the organization’s president. "We do see measurable results, and we hear that across the board from our members. Catholics are doing business with Catholics because of this organization, which was very hard to do because we just didn’t know who was Catholic and who provided the services that we’ve needed."

Also, CBN now has a newsletter that promotes upcoming events; members also can submit articles on subjects in which they are experts. "We try to use that newsletter as a way for our members to communicate with each other," Hurst said.

Another project that CBN undertook was to publish a directory of Catholic businesses and to distribute it at parishes throughout Utah. The response was so positive that they have budgeted to have twice as many published this year, Puhr said.

"It’s important to us that we support one another in our businesses and that we use the use the skills inside the network for our business purposes," he added.

CBN also is working to increase the abilities of its website, thecatholicbusinessnetwork.org, so it can become a tool for members to interact, post employment opportunities, Hurst said.

In the future, CBN will "continue to improve the tools we provide to members to interface with one another both professionally and personally," Franco said, adding that he also is working to increase membership. "I think it’s very important to continue to grow our membership base so that at the end of the day we can provide the very best services we can to the Catholic community."

The CBN membership hasn’t yet settled on a way to give back to the community, but it remains an important goal, Franco said. "It ties in to what it means to be Catholic. Given the knowledge and expertise of the business group, we felt that was a very important goal, to give back to the community."