One day several years ago, I was in my tiny little home office scanning through an entrepreneurial Facebook group I’d just joined. There were requests for all sorts of business referrals. And as I watched people in the comments section endorsing different individuals and their businesses, I wondered if that would ever happen for me.
I had just started out, probably still just trying to figure out the process for filing an FEIN. I hadn’t quite figured out how to make a name for myself yet. Networking seemed terrifying. And just newly in business, my budget was practically non-existent, so advertising was out of the question.
It slowly started to occur to me that you need to take an online business offline to make valuable connections. No one was going to blindly recommend me. And now, many years and several big successes later, my name is getting tossed around in the comments section of business referral request posts. But that’s simply because people got to know me, my work, and my commitment to excellent service.
The thing is, people don’t hire companies. At any given moment, for any given service, there are hundreds of companies who offer exactly what you do. And you may not be any better or worse than they are. But what you can depend on is that people hire people.
So how do you show people who you are behind your business?
Ask for coffee dates
If there’s a person or business you admire, reach out to them and simply ask to connect over coffee sometime. Entrepreneurship, especially for us virtual entrepreneurs, things can get pretty quiet and lonely behind a computer screen. Talk shop and be a support for one another.
Attend events
Okay, if you’re an introvert like me, this can seem somewhat terrifying. I get it. But hear me out. Attending events (conferences, speaker series, workshops, etc) allows for you to take some of your online relationships off line. If you’re a member of several online entreprenurial groups like I am, there’s nothing better than getting to take those connections to the next level. Scared to go alone? Ask one of your new coffee date friends to go with you!
Be social
Okay this one might sound sort of silly, but being social can actually help you make the right connections. Chat to the people around you while you’re out. Striking up conversation with the strangers around you while you’re out may lay the founation for important connections. Chat to the guy standing next to you at the bar who is also waiting for a beer. Join a communal table at a restaurant and actually connect with the people on the other end. Simply being friendly and chatty will allow people to get to see the person behind your business. You’ll have to ask me to tell you the story sometime of how just chatting to a girl next to me at an event changed the trajectory of my entire life. Anyway…
And while these people may not be the ones to hire you, they will be the ones who refer you to their friends, family, and connections.
If I’m honest, we like to over-complicate things. We’ve heard our entire lives It’s not what you know but who you know. While I would argue that what you know is important, I would also totally agree that who you know matters too. People take recommendations seriously. So if you can make connections and work in a way that allows your reputation to proceed you, you’re golden my friend.
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