Supporting Your Fellow Entrepreneurs

Welcome back to the blog this week! I wanted to take a moment before starting this blog to thank you all for your continued support and I am so thankful to have a wonderful audience reading this blog each week that I post. I wanted to bring this up because of the topic I had in mind to discuss with you all this week and it seemed really appropriate to take this moment to say a huge thank you to you all!

Recently, our SEVEN members participated in one of our weekly chapter round-table discussions where they spoke with each other about how they can support their fellow entrepreneurs (specifically those that are in our SEVEN family). We had a lot of our wonderful members tell us how much they enjoyed the topic so I thought a blog post would be a big hit as well!

Create a Mini Community

Support doesn’t always have to mean that you are doing something constantly for another person. When I speak about the importance of entrepreneurs helping each other out, people often look at me with big eyes and a blank mind as to how to even begin. I’ve noticed that people seem to think that they don’t know were to begin when it comes to supporting other entrepreneurs. After all, you are probably extremely focused on your own success (which is obviously important). Here’s the thing: if you really want to be a successful entrepreneur, you can’t get there alone. Okay, sure, someone may have gotten there on their own but that person is the exception and, to be perfectly honest, I’m not sure they even exist!

Create  Your Own Support Network

So, how do you begin helping your fellow business owners? It’s simple and the first step is actually the hardest (but not hard at all!). If you have a difficult time stepping into a room of “strangers”, there is a simple fix! As an entrepreneur, you absolutely have to stop thinking of people you don’t know as strangers and start viewing them as potential contacts. Of course, not every person you meet (even at a conference specifically for entrepreneurs) is going to be a good match for you and your business. However, you could take that situation and help that person find someone who better matches their needs. In that way, you have helped (even if its not with your own services). Not only will you feel good for being a nice person, but your fellow entrepreneur will be more likely to keep you in mind and willing to pass your information along to someone else who could either help you or that could use your business. In this way, we support each other, even if its not an immediate thing.

As you can see, there is so much to networking and also not much at all. I know that seems like it shouldn’t make sense but networking is a trial and error process. Here is my challenge to you: start by connecting with one potential contact, be brave and (above all) be willing to say, “What is it that I can do for you?”. That simple sentence could change your life for the better!

Is there a contact who you feel you could pass along to someone else? Leave them in the comments and help your fellow entrepreneurs be the best that they can be!