Why your community is the most important piece of your business

“I didn’t really understand the value of my network until this year. And this is with an MBA and 12 years of finance experience under my belt.”

I was on the phone with my brother a few months ago, asking him about the value of deal-sourcing (aka finding a client) vs. the value of executing the work (surprise, the sourcing of the deal is more valuable).

“I went to business school understanding that my network was important, but I only translated it as my immediate network after business school — the one I needed to get the job.”

I understood this — my larger event planning clients have all come from my network. Sure, the more I did the better I got, but also, the more I did, the more people knew about the work myself and my team were doing.

“But now, I looked around and my peers are Presidents or CEOs. People in my office look at me like I know stuff. It’s weird to move from “operator” to “expert” even within my own field, because I’ve been the one that does the work for so long.”

If you’ve been around here for any length of time, you’ll note that I’m starting to talk more about the value of expertise vs. the value of executing the work.

I thought that this mental shift from DOING the work to diagnosing the problem was something that other people did, and that I was just waking up to it.

What I’ve realized is that most people have a hard time moving through this identity change — no matter where they are in their journey.

Which is why your community is so important.

A few years ago, I wrote a post about the importance of finding a community of people who run similar businesses as you in order to help your growth.

Not only is your network important to help you book work, your network is important to help you spot the expertise that you’re providing without being paid for it.

Most of us know that having a community is important in order to surround yourself with support and encouragement.

I’ve talked about this extensively — as a solo founder or business owner, it’s very hard to both do the work of growing your company, and be the outside perspective looking in to assess your own growth.

Which is why many of my consulting/coaching clients hire me — to help be that voice of support and assessment.

Even better? Having a community of people around you who run businesses (service-based or otherwise) and to whom you can ask questions is invaluable.

These people will give you insight into their client processes, they’ll show you how they pitch a client, and they’ll walk you through their client on-boarding process.

They’ll tell you the overhead they spend on their business, what’s working for them and what isn’t.

They may even refer you to other clients

And as you grow your business, it’s up to you to grow your network in the direction that you want to go.

Three years ago, I barely had any use for my brother’s advice.

He came from an investment banking background, and he focused on deals larger than I’ve ever made in total through my company.

But as my company refined a few things in our client process, he hires people like me (not in events, but strategic consultants) and he really helped me understand how bigger companies think about value-creation.

Which is important not only if you’re working for big corporate companies, but as your pitching smaller clients as well.

You’ll need different things from your community as time goes on

When I first started my business, I didn’t have a single friend that owned a business.

I talked a lot about how challenging it was, but no one else seemed to understand. It was a really lonely time in my business.

From that, I started a small group of women where we talked about business ownership.

We’ve been meeting regularly for the last five years.

Now, I’m working on bigger projects and projecting bigger incomes in the coming years — which means I need to take off my “executor” hat and put on my CEO hat.

That means, I need a new community of people who can help me with those experiences.

This goes for you, too.

Your current community will help you get lots of things that you need right now — but they’ll also help cheer you on along the path to finding the next group of people who will be able to help you with the next thing.

Sometimes, you’ll need to invest time into a new community (networking events, doing favors, connecting people).

Sometimes, you’ll need to invest money (paying to be a part of a membership or alumni association).

Either way, your community will help define the success of your business, no matter how well you do the work (and hopefully, if you’re here, your work is already excellent or on its way to being excellent).

Look beyond people that look immediately like you

I know in 2020 this should be obvious but currently, the people in my immediate network who are helping support me around my business are not in my industry.

One is my brother — someone who regularly hires consultants at a high level and can talk through what he’s looking for when he’s sourcing a deal.

One is a good friend from college — someone who can give me insight on what it looks like to work at a client services agency so I can understand better how to position the work I do.

One is a former mentor in events — she leads teams and also is moving through a career pivot.

Before, I only focused on networking with other business owners.

That was good then. Now, I need support in different areas of growing my business.

Your network is growing, too

As my business has grown, so have the positions of my former network — namely people I was friends with in college or in my previous corporate job who now have buying power at their organizations.

When I first started, focusing on my immediate needs were paramount.

Things like sourcing new clients, figuring out a signature process, and setting up systems to help me and my team run the business were important.

But while some of those things have become routine and settled, I looked up and realized that my network had grown into positions of influence in many different sectors.

Just because someone in the past may not have been a helpful connection, doesn’t mean that in the future they won’t have the ability to help you out.

As your business grows, keep an eye on your network — aka your community.

More than anything else, these people will be able to share short-term client work, as well as help support you as you grow AND as they grow in their careers.