I think that all networking groups should be open. It is my opinion that we should spend time with people that do the same thing as us.
It is my opinion that niche works best and we should all discover what we are great at, what niche we work best in, and focus on that. Perhaps I am a believer in a utopian business society but a believer I am.
Here are a few reasons why I think that this would be great.
First, we could learn from one another. If we actually spent more time networking with fellow workers in our same field we could actually share experiences and tips. There is no reason to hold back any tip that I have learned. I believe that is important to share our horror stories, our mistakes, our triumphs and the latest tip or tool that we have learned.
We are all small business owners here folks.
We are all small business owners and we need to look out for one another. If you are small business owner similar to me than this means that you are the company or you have a small staff. It is none of our best interest if one of us fails. Imagine a scenario where one of us falls ill or has a tragic circumstance, wouldn’t be great to know that someone could step in for you and at least do the absolute minimum to make sure the world around us does not crash? We should think in a team mentality just a little bit more.
Experts in a niche
If we are passionate about a specific niche such as pet rescue or blogging or whatever it may be for you, you are more likely to learn specific tips and tricks that will make those clients digital world rock. If you become that person and then you know a group of people who are experts in something else the client referrals could be amazing. We should not try and be all things as small businesses, let’s leave that to the large agency. I would love to be in a situation where a web company gets a call from someone who plans to build out a huge blogging business and they refer that person to me. Then I get a call from someone who needs a database built into a website and I knew exactly who to refer that too.
I completely understand why there are closed networking groups and I get the perspective behind it but I just don’t agree. I think that there is a lot to be said for openness and this goes for bloggers too. If you are blogger do not be afraid to reference someone who blogs about the same topics as you. It does not make you any less valuable. It just gives your reader more opportunity to learn even more and gain even more perspectives. So in the spirit of this idea here are a few fellow people who blog about blogging that I think that you should read.
http://www.webgnomes.org/blog/
http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog
I agree! We can all work together and learn from each other. Sharing experiences helps all of us grow.
I especially agree with the fact that if we find our niche, we can all compliment each other. Everybody knows they have strengths in certain areas or even just prefer to do certain jobs in our fields. Build on that and become the expert, it’s amazing what people can do when they work together in that way.
In the business world, don’t be selfish! It all comes back around! You have to give some to get some.