Art of Networking
Building Your Networking Community
Why your success depends on the relationships you build.
By Jim Blasingame

"I am a rock, I am an island": These lyrics are from Simon and Garfunkel's 1967 song, "I Am A Rock." Paul Simon wrote the song while he was "finding himself" in London, but I'll wager he would now agree that success in life can't be found if you isolate yourself. So how do you make sure you don't become an island? Build community.

Think about that word—community. Webster says community is "a unified body of individuals." Now let's take it to the next level by making it possessive, like this: my community. This is the community of people who know, support, and depend on you, wherever they may be.

And here's a pivotal thought: in "my community," you're the unifying force. There is great power in recognizing and exercising the unifying influence you have in your community. Leveraging your community is an effective way to carve out a niche in the marketplace. Being able to create and "unify" a community that is available to you—and you to it—is essential to success as a small business owner.

In Masters Of Networking, co-authored by my friend and member of my Brain Trust community, Ivan Misner, I found this: "Successful people do not achieve their success on their own; instead, they surround themselves with a well-developed, sophisticated support network."

Dave Longaberger, who turned his father's basket weaving hobby into a billion dollar a year business, said it this way: "Your success will ultimately depend on the relationships you build with people."

Like I said, it all has to do with community.

How to Create Community
So, how do you create your community? By implementing what I call the "New Leverage Model For Entrepreneurs in the 21st Century," which is comprised of three levers: networking, strategic alliances, and technology.

The chicken or the egg?
In terms of your personal penetration of the marketplace, the egg (networking) comes first, followed by the chicken (results). When done well, networking produces various and numerous results: a customer, a friend, a partner, a center-of-influence, and/or an acquaintance.

Build something.
A carpenter's hammer and saw aren't productive unless he builds something. Networking is a tool that is not productive unless you consciously strengthen your community. You use a hammer and saw to build a house, and you use networking to move, build, unify, and influence your community.

Master networkers use resources.
There are resources you can use to find out how to network. Ivan Misner has written many books on this subject. Understanding and practicing the tips, techniques, protocol, and ethics of networking will allow you to become what Ivan calls a "Master Networker."

But a Master Networker without an awareness of and goal toward building a community, is like what Texans call an urban cowboy, "all hat and no cattle." If you're networking without an awareness of building your community, you're wasting a lot of people's time, including your own.

Start building.
If you've been in the marketplace for a while, conduct a census of your community. Assemble their names, numbers, etc., into a manageable form. See if you can identify any interesting characteristics about the profile of your community:

• Is everyone an old friend?
• How many new members are there?
• How many live outside of your geographic community?
• Are any virtual members?
• How many see you as an influential resource?
• How many do you see as an influential resource?

Just as every traditional community needs all kinds of residents to make the community work, your community has the same needs. Recognizing that you have a community that you influence and unify, as well as identifying member profiles, will help you focus your future networking activity.

Write this on a rock … Master carpenters build houses. Master Networkers build communities. Get off of your island and start building "your community."

Jim Blasingame is the award-winning host of the nationally syndicated radio show, The Small Business Advocate, which is also simulcast on the Internet: www.smallbusinessadvocate.com. Jim is the author of Small Business is Like a Bunch of Bananas and Three Minutes to Success. He conducts over 1,000 live interviews with members of his "Brain Trust" every year, of which Ivan Misner has been a member since 1999.

Jim Blasingame is also the founder of the world's first and only small business knowledgebase, www.AskJim.biz, which aggregates the knowledge of hundreds of experts and makes that brain power available in short answers to small business questions. Dr. Ivan Misner is Jim's lead networking expert.