I recall soon after I first started my business Blue Zenith Design + Strategy, I joined the local chamber of commerce to give the business an opportunity to grow. At that time, the local business community was extremely vibrant and active! There were endless opportunities to meet other business owners through multiple committees and networking meetings offered. I loved attending the ribbon cuttings! That was where I met the owners and celebrated with them their accomplishments, their anniversary, a new location, their business expansion. Amazing workshops were regularly offered! I joined some I thought I could learn, from my fellow business owners, about topics that I needed to know more about.
The topics ranged from new technologies, trends, business forecasts, business plans, marketing, the list was endless. There certainly was an experienced wealth of knowledge to be gleaned from the business owners who were members of that particular chamber group!
Early lessons learned
I gathered a lot of knowledge from those early interactions. First and foremost, I began to understand that business is personal and people do business with those they know, like and trust. Business is built on the premise that when we are familiar with whom we do business with we feel totally more comfortable and accessible. There seems to always be a personal connection to whomever we choose, and why we make a point to deal with particular people. Those early lessons were invaluable and I still refer to them while doing business today.
The shifting tides
Recently, just the way we do business is shifting and I’ve been seeing this shift evolving over the past few years. Busy business owners and entrepreneurs are making powerful changes that enable them to learn and gather information differently. Whereas just a few years ago you could fill a room for a workshop or a retreat, those seats are becoming harder to fill. We have options, and we are choosing the options that work within the confines of our own schedules.
Not only is this trend fueled by our ever expanding busy lives, but also by the options technology has provided us. It’s become quite a bit easier to learn online, to gather information through an online platform, to find the answers we seek on our own. Technology is fueling this trend that is consistently providing us more ways to engage our customers, from online courses, to Zoom virtual meetings.
An open door to the world
Technology is more intertwined with this advanced way of how we do business today, also how we operate it daily. It’s the main tool to deliver information, to interact and engage with our clients. The ability to be anywhere on the planet and still conduct business, has allowed us an enormous amount of freedom in our lives. It allows us to expand our reach. We no longer need to be fixed to any physical location if we can find a way to reach out and serve through technology. Online membership programs, online courses, zoom conference calls…all ways that we can conduct business, extend a learning model to serve our clients from anywhere we choose to be in the world.