Take the pain out of networking with my two-part round up of some local groups…
Starting out as self-employed was a daunting prospect. After years of a regular salary and relative stability, I found myself at a crossroads wondering whether to continue to do what I knew and look for another employed HR role with the aim of climbing the corporate ladder or to challenge myself and become an independent.
Health and family tipped the balance and with the encouragement of a business coach, I took the decision to try my hand at self-employment in the hope it would give me better control over my life, health and responsibilities.
I knew I could ‘do’ HR; I’ve done it for years. What I was less sure of were the other aspects of running your own business, such as IT and marketing. With the website in the bag and, once I’d got over the cringe-factor, tentative steps had been taken to put myself ‘out there’ on social media, my next step was to start to meet actual people in the flesh under my new business name; pretty scary after years of working in-house, where to a certain extent I’d been able to hide behind the business with a huge infrastructure.
Now there was no getting away from the fact that my business was me and I was my business and that meant getting out there and networking.
If I’m honest, my perception of ‘networking’ based on events I’d attended in the past was a bit of a stuffy affair, an ‘old boys club’, men in suits etc. However, I decided to do some research and wrote a list of all the groups I could find or was aware of in my local area (Norfolk and Suffolk). There was a lot out there and not just the traditional ones, I found there were several women-only networks too. As a woman in business I was interested in these type of events but again, if I’m honest, I was equally sceptical of this concept, imagining the stereotypical bored housewife peddling their latest franchise fad (I hasten to add that I’ve since learned this was a very unfair assumption by me and I’ve met a great deal of interesting women, running all sorts of businesses, in both female only and mixed settings).
My schedule at first was a bit hit and miss due to lack of regular childcare in the summer so I pencilled in my diary all the dates I could do and tried to fit networking around my availability (breakfast meetings, evening events etc).
I was surprised how much there is out there to fit with most industries, personalities and schedules. Here’s my review of some of the groups on offer in Norfolk (more to follow in part 2):
WiRE Network
(12 July 2019)
Women in Rural Enterprise is a national network. I attended a meeting at the Norfolk branch run by Linda Garrould. I was welcomed by all and had some informal conversations/introductions. It helped I knew the speaker with whom I had worked with previously. We then went around the table to formally introduce ourselves. There was a wide range of attendees from a counsellor, accountant, an ex-lawyer turned mediator (very interesting), a hypnotherapist, H&S specialist, florist, stylist and a tropic consultant.
The H&S specialist gave a talk on wellbeing which I found relevant as this could well lead to me referring clients for her courses in the future. It was then on to a talk on the importance of SEO for small businesses by Linda the host (a website developer and SEO specialist) with a handy print out to take away. I was heartened to know that blogging was a good way of updating your website in turn helping your SEO ranking and therefore promptly returned home and started this blog!
There were plenty of short breaks throughout the meeting for more informal chat and everyone brought along business cards/flyers to exchange.
WiRE Details: £50/year membership gets you access to the national network, a business listing on the national website and other similar opportunities. Meetings cost £5 and you may attend twice as a guest (£8) before deciding whether to properly join. https://www.wireuk.org/networks/norwich-wire-network/
Thrive.buzz
(7 August 2019)
Thrive, founded by Lorna Burroughes and run by her and husband John, is a local to Norwich Networking group. Meetings are held regularly at different times of the day – breakfast, lunch and evening, to suit all timetables.
I attended the meeting having spoken beforehand to Lorna’s right hand woman, Kay, who explained the format of the meeting etc.
At the meeting I was warmly met by Lorna who introduced me to a member and got me a coffee. It was a breakfast meeting and the group of approximately 10 members (bearing in mind it was the summer break) sat down to a full English (there were also veggie/GF options as well as pastries and fresh fruit).
Lorna acted as Chair and went around the table with members introducing themselves and discussing what they were currently working on as well as what they wanted to get out of the meeting (i.e. introductions etc). There was an Accountant, Insolvency Specialist, Financial Advisor, Mortgage Broker (so lots of financial information readily available!) there was also an independent Travel Agent, a specialist in optimum workspace design for good health, John who also works as a Business Coach and myself.
It was interesting hearing what everyone had to say and when I spoke and explained what I do there seemed to be some interest. The format in thrive is for a member to do a short talk on a subject of their choosing. This time it was John speaking about target customers.
Thrive.buzz details: £20 for breakfast meeting as a guest. I understand there are couple of membership options which I’ll hear about once I’ve tested out another meeting.
WHW (#womenhelpingwomen) Business Meetup, Wymondham
(6 September 2019)
WHW was founded by Sarah Wynn, a part time teacher and founder of Mumma&more events planning business. The meetings are held on the first Friday of the month at Centre Paws, Wymondham where the owner Kathryn Cross, is one of the meeting attendees.
At the meeting, everybody introduced themselves and their business. From memory there were approximately 10 attendees including a yoga teacher, book seller, holistic therapist, children’s nursery owner.
Leigh Farrer, owner of STILO social media and marketing agency as well as wild campsite Church House Guestwick, gave a talk about branding. This was insightful and it resonated with me more by her showing a little vulnerability but at the same time demonstrating she was a powerhouse of knowledge in her field(s)!
WHW is a free, easygoing meeting for likeminded women in business. I’ll be back!
You can find more information on the facebook group: Women Helping Women Support Group (closed group).
Keep your eyes peeled for Part 2 of my networking blog with a round up of other groups I’ve checked out recently.