Small Office, Home Office Information |
| Networking – A Must Do for Small Business If no man is an island then no small business is either … hmmm I’m not sure about my grammar there but I know you will understand what I mean. No small business can survive and prosper without some interaction with other small businesses. And time spent networking is never really wasted. We have a friend here in town who also runs his own small business. His specialty is installing and activating scripts on sites run by small e-commerce merchants. He really has no direct contact with our business but we have got to know him over the years from various message boards. Sometimes we send work his way when people ask us for someone who can do what he does and occasionally he is in a position to point people to us. We’ve met him face to face a couple of times but mostly we chat (occasionally) via an instant messaging service. He’s busy with his business as we are with ours and so that level of contact works for all of us. It’s a relaxed and friendly relationship that doesn’t take a lot of time to maintain but on Friday that friendly and relaxed relationship became very important. We were both working hard when a message from him popped up on Toni’s screen. It simply gave her a link to a thread on a message board and that was it. From that simple friendship and simple message came a job that has the potential to develop into one of the biggest projects we have ever undertaken. A little networking with another small business and we are looking at the potential of big money. Of course, networking does not always mean that big paying jobs are going to fall into your lap. Sometimes the benefits can’t be measured in money, sometimes just the information you get from that networking can prove invaluable. So spend time networking with others in your local area and with others across the country and across the world. You never know when that time spent networking is going to pay dividends. If you’re
a small home based business here in Australia let me recommend the Propulsion
Business Network to you. We joined over the weekend and it looks like
a great place to be and we look forward to seeing you there.
12 Sep 2005 |
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