Networking Is Key
Many a business person will tell you that networking, and the contacts you have available to you, is a huge key to success. That applies to the one-person, online, work from home business as well. The difference, however, is that much of that person’s networking will be virtual and online. I have a huge network of contacts to draw upon, but I’ve never actually met 99.9% of them face to face. That’s ok. I’ve established a strong personal and professional relationship with them, and I know that I can count on them when I need them. Of course, they also know they can count on me as well.
This network of contacts will be there if you need support, outsourcing, links, traffic, and any number of other things. Each person in this loosely-defined network has her own strengths and talents, and each person can draw upon others’ strengths to back up her own. You aren’t all in business together. You aren’t partners in any legal sense of the word. But you are all inter-connected and can usually be relied upon to augment each others’ needs on occasion. In some cases, this will be direct trading of services, and in others, it will just be the opportunity to bounce ideas off one another.
In a post about blogging, seo, and traffic, a member of my network of contacts, Eric Enge, says:
…embrace the social aspect of blogging. Relationships build success here. Make contact with the people that can make your blog a success. Deliver plenty of value to these relationships. In the beginning, plan on giving more than you get. You need to build this up slowly, and effectively. Over time, this should allow you to get a significant readership, and lots of relevant traffic.
While he is speaking about a specific subject in this quote (blogging traffic), it really applies to a much broader business sense. You, as a lone, self-employed person, working from your home (in your pajamas), don’t have a large staff to support you. You need people, even in a one-person show. Networking with others provides benefits both to you and those others in a myriad of ways. Don’t neglect the networking aspect just because you work alone. It is a key to your success, so please add the Networking key to your virtual keyring now.
Go on, go out in the online communities of your niche and connect with others. It’s vital to your growth.
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Posted on September 23rd, 2007 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: Keys To Success
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Love this post! Would love to see a post on specific networking actions. Might sound crazy, but for the naturally shy or introverted, we need a little help every once in a while.
I’ll definitely add that to the list of things I need to cover. Thanks for letting me know.
This is so true! I know in my case it was two-fold…
1. I didn’t fully understand how beneficial it would be for a “one-woman show” to have all these online partners.
and then
2. I was intimidated by all of you pros out there and didn’t want to bother anyone/didn’t think I was important enough to do so.
I’m so glad that there were enough kind and knowledgeable people out there who decided to reach out to me and shake show me how true #1 is and how false #2 is
Nathania, if you have any local meetups that are relevant to you or your business (on meetup.com) I strongly suggest participating in them. That’s a good combination of offline-online partnerships and having fun, expanding networks, learning and sharing.