Build a business network: 5 benefits of a business network
What kind of environment do you have? One that supports you? Today we’re talking about why you should definitely build a business network and 5 reasons and at the same time benefits of having the most amazing business buddies around you. Advantages for every single one of them. Because if you get stuck sometimes, it doesn’t have to be the latest hack at all. Often it is just the right environment.
You know, the human being is a really exciting creature. As you can see, it’s not going to get geeky here today in terms of technology, but in terms of togetherness. And why everything works out so much better when we walk paths together.
im IeJust this past weekend we posted two posts on Instagram that went off quite nicely. If you don’t follow me there yet, I’m there @byjohannafritz.
The right environment: phrases you hear again and again as a self-employed person
I’ll start at the second post. This was about the sayings that you as a self-employed with an online business get to hear again and again like this. I read you here times a few.
Evelyn gets to hear: "W ill you really invest there money? But this is an expensive hobby ." or " But you have a profession, why don’t you do something right? ?"
Bettina had to listen to again just the other day " You can only afford to be self-employed because your husband is financially behind you. ". A sentence that makes me really angry. Like a woman can’t do it alone. Middle finger in your face to all who think like that.
Nadja hears sentences like "You can’t make money with that…."
Yes, people actually live behind the moon?
Like? This is how you can earn money on the Internet?
I mean. Everyone has his bubble. You and me, we both live in an online business bubble. Others live in their career ladder hamster wheel bubble, still others in a mommyhood bubble. But that out there nowadays still (after how many years with this internet?) is thought that this is all just a hobby with a bit of scrolling through apps and you can not make money here, that shocks me but again and again anew.
Old folder, there’s still a fair bit of work ahead of us all. My mission. Haha. Challenge accepted. Without nonsense times.
There is enough evidence out there that it works? And honestly, what company is NOT on the internet today?? Or did I miss something? Soagr in schools finds so looooong introduction. Haha. Oh man. I tell you. I’m looking at high schools a bit early because there are just so many and it’s the big one’s turn next year. How proudly some report that they now have wifi. I feel partly really like in the stone age. But luckily there are a few exceptions.
Back to the topic. People who just don’t (want to) understand?) What we, you and I, do all day long.
Our environment!! And what was that again?
You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with?
Well then often: Good night, Marie.
But there’s so much truth in it. Think about it, you spend a lot of time with people who don’t see any sense in what you do or want to do. Who even judge it pejoratively, because in their eyes it is "nothing right". Who don’t have a clue about what you do. Who then grumble and end up grumbling even louder when they realize you’re doing your thing and are happy. Because they don’t dare. Or not know how.
Build up a business network: Do you have a business buddy?
And on the other hand: Imagine that you are surrounded by people who tick like you all the time. In a business network, which are also all self-employed. Who have big goals. Who maybe are also mummy, manage the household and in parallel just raise another business on fire. Come what may. People who see this internet as an opportunity. Who have an entrepreneurial spirit. Who celebrate your successes, who learn with you, fall, get up, fall and get up again. Because it’s worth it. Because we all can’t help but do our thing.
Wouldn’t your life look a little different with group two? Wouldn’t your business pick up speed much sooner?
I know you’ll say yes or nod your head. There is no other answer here. For exactly this reason I am so happy… oh what, really touched, what all was in the comments of our second Instagram post.
A business network on Instagram
Because that’s where we asked you to tag your business buddies and say thank you. Oh my god! So much love in these comments. So much gratitude, appreciation, connection. Ladies! You are rockstars!!
Let someone say again that we ladies are elbowing each other out.
Lena wrote to Johanna "What would I be without your structured input, your best questions and GREAT input. Thank you."
Claudia wrote to Julia "It’s so good to know that there are people who have the same passion and don’t get tired of exchanging ideas about it in order to develop further."
And Nadja writes to Barbara "Die Rock in the surf. A true magician who always manages to sort out even my chaos again somehow. This CAN ONLY be magic."
This is what I mean.
Find a business environment that supports you
If you don’t currently have such an environment, then find one for yourself. Build a business network! It’s so much nicer to live this way and your business will take wings like you never thought possible.
I come shortly still to THE five most important reasons for a network, but let me tell you beforehand that this is one of THE reasons for our business power camps.
Business Power Camp 2020
Yes, business input is important there. But combined with women who tick just like you, it’s indescribable. Our participants from Ibiza last November still meet regularly virtually and live on exactly this feeling from there.
Day by day, this group that didn’t know each other before has grown more and more together. Every day the energy level was a bit higher in our hut with sea view. Until, in the end, they called themselves Team Megalomania and nothing but world domination was an option.
Team megalomania – are you with us?
THESE are changes that make me jump out of bed every morning anew.
And just by the way, we have NOW reopened the doors for our next camp in May on Mallorca in the most amazing finca ever. Manuela as a cook we got to meet last week at our meet up and enjoy her delicacies. She will be at the start and will take care of the physical well-being there. Dinner on the terrace, masterminds in the garden and on the beach… it’s just going to be great. Anika, Manu and I are already beaming just thinking about it.
If you like to have some impressions of the finca and more info, check out byjohannafritz.de/businesscamp (all in one) over.
You can apply there directly and if you’re on fire and click send, then you and I will talk soon. In fact, I have a preliminary conversation with each potential participant to get to know her better.
Okay. I could go on forever about camp because it just brings a change as a person and in business like you can’t imagine, but let’s move on here.
Follow up links: build a business network
Become a VIP Rockstar – Waitlist
Calendar raffle on Instagram
More info on the Business Power Camp 2020
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What are the benefits to each individual from such a business network?
Here’s to sharing, as so many have shared on Instagram?
Let’s start with..
1. Encouraging and encouraging each other
How often do we all have this head rush that so often prevents us from moving forward and leaving the comfort zone? We are all true masters at making excuses for why we can’t do certain things or why we aren’t ready yet. With all these sentences alone I could fill meanwhile a whole book.
It always makes me so sad. Because I know that someone stands there just in the way itself.
If we have people around us who recognize this and mean it honestly with us, they can call us on it. Encourage. They drive us to great things and believe in us. If you don’t do it yourself, they will. And as we are, we eventually believe them and end up taking uncomfortable steps because they make us grow.
Encouragement is an incredibly important point. Especially if you otherwise have in your private environment only those who doubt this online self-employment all the time and tell you horror stories of people who have not made it.
2. Together you get so much further
You can make the most amazing plans and collaborations with people who tick the same way you do.
Because first, it’s more fun in pairs (or more), second, even bigger ideas emerge here (because you don’t have to do everything alone anymore and you encourage each other) and third, everyone has different skills. You benefit incredibly from each other. So many think they have to do everything alone. But you get much further in a team. So get together and rock the coolest projects.
3. Honest, objective feedback
Maybe you know this: You ask your family or friends for feedback and they’re all like "Yeah, great!!!", but actually you’re just as smart afterwards as you were before. Because your family is too close to you and you are too close to them. That does not work. They know you, your circumstances, your highs, your lows. That can no longer be objective. As much as they want to testify that they are.
We noticed that a lot in the last camp. How each has a story. How everyone does this or that in exactly the way they do it. And that at the same time, as a quasi-outsider, that’s exactly why you can give honest tips and feedback.
We perceive feedback and criticism differently
Also, we don’t get so upset when someone who is not family or closest friend is honest for once and the answer is not what we expected. We are more likely to listen.
I notice that z.B. also over and over again, when I give people from my private environment tips in matters of business. Often it’s as if they accept it with thanks, but then act in a completely contrary way. Sometimes, weeks or months later, the tip is implemented, if at all.
We don’t really let people who are too close to us tell us anything or feel like they can’t possibly know that. Because you know each other privately and not on a business level.
So look for a business environment that is honest with you and far enough away from your private life. Often only then you will really accept the input.
4. You get a whole new perspective, even from other industries
Talking to people from all different industries, with all different pasts and goals, you’ll be able to think outside the box in one fell swoop. Because at that moment you not only have your view of the status quo, but the view of so many people. We all see everything differently. For you the sky is light blue, for others it’s turquoise. For you email marketing is the worst challenge, others see it as the greatest gift for their online business. You have no idea how to acquire new customers, someone else gives you ten ideas that you would never have thought of yourself.
New perspectives from other industries
By the way, this was also one of the reasons why I expanded my coaching from "just" illustrators to "women who want to build and grow an online business". Because all illustrators do everything the same way. Because photographers all do everything the same. Just like all web designers, lawyers, tax accountants and social media managers do. We all have our tunnel vision. We look at how the "competition" is doing it and at some point we don’t even see all the other possibilities anymore.
Just yesterday I heard how a very young entrepreneur handled six-figure customer orders via Messenger without ever having spoken to the customers beforehand. This probably makes the toenails of the good old school sales people curl, who still have the 1:1 conversation by phone or maybe video call in the meantime. It can’t work like that.
But it can. You just have to do it, believe in it and go for it. What works for you, doesn’t have to work for others. And on the other hand: Just because everyone is doing something one way, doesn’t mean it’s the only way.
So get people in your environment who are from a different industry than yours. Sure it’s nice to exchange with colleagues. But you all stay so fine within your comfort zone. Cozy up on the sofa. You want to grow? Then go. Talk to people from other industries.
5. And last but not least: Stay on the ball
We all have highs. We all have lows. We all know it takes perseverance and a plan to grow steadily. How many startups go down the drain again? Survive not two years?
How many give up when the going gets tough? Maybe just before the breakthrough comes. And you will never know.
With the right people around you, they will slap you on the wrist, pinch your arm or just sit quietly and ask the one right question that gets you to keep going. Giving up is not an option.
Look for these people. Especially if you currently have rather the vultures flying around you, just waiting to be proven right that you can’t make money with this internet and self-employment.
Stay on the ball. Like our business camp ladies still support and can always slap each other on the wrist, as soon as someone even starts to think about giving up.
A network of business power women: The Business Power Camp in Mallorca in May 2020
At this point I would like to give you the hint (and I hope you understand it correctly) that in May we will fly to Mallorca again with a power troop, the next Team Grobenwahn. Five days of working together on the business, getting new perspectives and ideas. And all this in the warmth of Mallorca while you sit by the pool with your legs dangling in the water.