Business network or Business community?
Last night I spoke with a group of 38 small business owners at a local event we held in the grounds of a beautiful, rural business park. Half of the room were people I knew and had worked with before, helping them with low-cost high-impact marketing. The others were a collection of recent readers of newsletter and blog material and who had come to learn more.
We started with refreshments and some food so that people could meet and mingle, introduce them selves and learn more about each other. Then we had four speakers sharing different ideas on the themes of Cracking the Credit Crunch. So we had Iain Buchan from Direct Cash Flow Solutions sharing about the need for a credit control system within your business. Nic Taylor from Patro Chartered Accountants treated us to some brilliant insights on effective treatment of your business tax burden, and Carol from Yorkshire Business Services hosted a talk about the importance of being part of your business community.
To what extent was the evening about networking, versus building a sense of community? For me as part of the hosting team it was a fine line, but I have to veer towards the community aspect. It is relatively easy to network if this means saying hello and exchangeing contact details, and thinking to yourself “Will they buy my goods?” However, this is a very one sided argument and is unlikely to lead to any new business being written on either side.
The community perspective however is much more all embracing and suggests that there is a scope and potential for each of us to consider the person we speak with, wanting us to actually make a real connection that is about being in contact on an ongoing basis rather than for the few minutes we stand before each other.
When you attend such an event are you listening for the broader community that you reach though the person who speaks with you and you with them? Are you just there for yourself? Is it possible that in being there for the broader business community first and foremost, you could actually be there for yourself anyway? I think so. Try it.
