We all have them - some are huge, built up over long numbers of years; and some are small, being built up gradually as we get more experienced as entrepreneurs. What am I talking about you might ask? Our contact books of course - those repositories of vital information on the people we know and have built relationships with over the years. The well-known saying “your network is your net worth” is so true, and our contact books are what keep us connected to our networks. We browse through them, we reach out to those contacts to say hello regularly, to find out what is happening in their lives, and of course to do business or connect to others we may need on our entrepreneurial journeys. As much as our contact books are good for us and our own businesses, it’s important to remember that they have so much more power if they are shared. We know how hard it is to build up those contacts and networks, we have all done it over the years. So maybe we should pay it forward and wherever possible help a fellow woman entrepreneur with a key contact or two that could help them on their journeys.
Read moreThe Early Warning System
During one of our recent Lioness Business Agility Webinars, we had a number of women entrepreneurs from our community who were sharing their experiences of building their businesses over the long-term. These were women who had been in business for over thirty years, all highly experienced and definitely battle hardened. During the course of the webinar, their very honest shared experiences of just what it takes to build a successful business grabbed the attention of the audience - because it was authentic and definitely heartfelt. There was a desire for other women to learn from their mistakes and not to repeat them - call it an Early Warning System if you like. One of the benefits of being in a community of fellow women entrepreneurs is that you can continually draw upon the experiences of others and apply them to your own entrepreneur journey much earlier on. Hopefully this means that you can fix things before they become problematic, and achieve success faster than those women entrepreneurs who have gone before you. It’s not just about learning from past successes, but also about learning from each others past mistakes.
Read moreThe comfort of referrals
Personally, I love a great referral, those times when someone I know recommends a great supplier they have used, or a service they have rated as excellent - even a great restaurant I should try or a movie I should watch. Referrals are powerful ways of giving us the comfort of knowing that someone whose judgement we trust is recommending something or someone to us. We feel more confident in using that service, or setting up a meeting, or booking that restaurant meal or movie ticket. As women entrepreneurs, our networks are our best referral systems in business. Just think about it for a moment - our fellow women business builders understand only too well how important it is to use the most reliable suppliers and service providers. Getting a recommendation from them on who to use, or even better, using each other’s businesses in our own supply chains, and then when we have a great experience recommending them to others, means we all win. That’s the power of networks to provide trusted comfort in referrals.
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