Widen Your Network
I was volunteering at the Information Booth at Laura Days last weekend and a friend said to me “Gee, you’ve only been in town six years and you know lots more people than I do! How did that happen?”.
A photographer from a nearby town called me on Monday and we got into a conversation about the people he wanted to meet. Turns out I know just about all of them. He wanted to know “How is it that your network is so broad?”
Both questions got me to thinking…how DID I meet all of these people? The answer? I got involved. When I first moved here I had a gallery and wine bar in the busiest part of town. I was also business partners with someone who had lived here a long time, so that also helped. But I joined the local community club, volunteered on the committee for a 150 year event, stepped up when asked to participate in the local festival. Basically, I got out of my cave and got involved.
Now six years later I am the resource for all things website related in the area. People call me with questions, bring me all kinds of business, and I have a wide recognition factor in the area.
I’ve always said if I wrote a book on moving to a small town, the first advice I would give would be to “do retail” whether it’s weekends pouring coffee at the local shop or ringing a cash register at the gas station - because you meet everyone that way. But if that doesn’t do anything for you, I think volunteering is the next step. And go to the meetings, bring ideas, speak up, work hard, do the job no one wants to do (once, anyway) and people will notice you, remember you, respect you. This is the beginning of the VCP process - Visibility, Credibility, Profitability. Small towns are a great way to get VCP.
September 12, 2007 at 7:28 pm
Beth, I couldn’t agree more. My mother was a very shy woman, the ninth in a family of ten. I’m guessin’ that she probably never got the chance to talk.
She and my dad moved many times in their first eleven years of marriage, sometimes only staying in one place six months. After the first several moves, she decided that she’d make friends the first day she hit a new town. She volunteered, joined and got connected. That was way back in the forties and fifties. She was being a purposeful networker way before the word networking was even used. She is now gone, but the last year she sent holiday cards out, she still had me help her write personal messages to 175 people. Back in their heyday, she and my dad sent out 700 cards and they took the time to write personal notes on all. Gosh, I am so proud to be her daughter, and hope that I can live up to half of her accomplishments.
You obviously are cut from the same stock! Congratulations on all you’ve accomplished.