Business Buddying for Mums in Business
Running your own business can be scary, especially when you have to make strategic decisions. Having someone else to run ideas by takes the fear out.
This is me (Claire Witz – on the left) and Janet Penny, and we’re “Business Buddies”.
We’re both self-employed sole-traders, and also mums in business. If you’re in that boat yourself, you’ll know that means wearing a heck of a lot of hats, multitasking, juggling and all the inherent highs and lows. And mostly doing all that completely on your own (or boring the pants off your husband and friends by talking about it).
Being a sole trader can mean complete freedom to have control over your business and follow your ideas, but it can also mean getting very side-tracked, overwhelmed, stuck, and feeling lonely at times too.
A little bit about us and how we became business buddies
I’m a business advisor and run MIB Network. I also run Qalbi and specialise in art and gifts inspired by travel, Arabic and Islam. Janet is a photographer specialising in newborns and runs Hushabye Photography. So we do quite different things and have diverse skills and experiences to bring to the mix.
We met about 8 years ago through MIB Network and initially collaborated running product photography workshops together about 6 years go. As part of that, we gradually progressed to becoming sounding boards for our respective businesses too. And through that we became friends. And for a while we were running partners (until Janet broke me!).
And we discovered that it worked REALLY well and helped both of us enormously, so we turned it into something more formal and became official Business Buddies.
Having a business buddy from a different business really helps give you another perspective on what you’re doing. Sometimes Claire sees a way round a problem that I wouldn’t have thought of.
How Business Buddying works for us
Here’s what we do and how it works…
1. We meet up about every 4-6 weeks to:
- discuss and brainstorm our current challenges and ideas, how we could develop things, work out if an idea could be taking us off track
- we schedule our marketing and social media plans
- we go through what we’ve done since last time and what worked and what didn’t (or didn’t get around to and why)
- we help each other out with technical stuff that one of us knows and the other doesn’t
- sometimes we cry into our mugs of tea.
2. We’re in touch via Facebook Messenger pretty much every day to:
- check in and ask how things are going
- celebrate, laugh, moan, rant
- ask quick questions
- get feedback, proof read and run things past one another
- we have our own little version of “office banter” and have fabulous “gif-offs” (conversations entirely using gifs, we can keep them going for ages, try it!)
3. We also:
- hold each other accountable
- support one another’s social posts
- try out different things like bullet journalling, routines and compare methods
- give one another practical help using our respective skills
- share books
- celebrate our respective successes together (Janet was my “date” recently at the Kent Women in Business Awards dinner)
- cheer each other up and hold each other up when we need it
- walk my dog together to have a change of scenery and a break
- drink a LOT of tea (and occasionally cider and gin).
Sound good? What to look for in a Business Buddy and where to find yours
1. Don’t choose your husband or bestie
Firstly, I’d suggest not using someone who you’re already really close to, like your husband or bestie because you’ll either go off track and get chatting about something else, or it could end up turning your relationship into something more work-related, which is not what you want to be talking about over a date night or social. There’s a good chance that your business buddy will end up being a friend, but probably with a different focus.
2. Keep it local if poss
Local is good, particularly if your business is more locally focused. There’s no substitute for seeing each other face to face, but if that fails Zoom, Skype and Messenger can be a good way to communicate. Also you’re both likely to have knowledge and contacts to benefit one another.
3. Try (the right) networking group
Probably the first and foremost way to find one is by asking around in a local business networking group (one that you’ve already identified as being full of your kind of people). It’s often the easiest way to find a local entrepreneur who gets it and would value the support as much as you would. One of the things we offer at MIB Network is a structure for our members to find a business buddy from within the group – maybe yours does something similar?
Top Tips
- Pair up with someone who you a) get on with, b) has different skills and experiences to you
- It’s really important you both give as much as you take – this should NEVER be a one-sided relationship
- ALWAYS respect and maintain one another’s confidentiality. Like any other relationship, start slowly if you don’t know each other at the start of your BB-ing.
- Like any other business partnership – hopefully it will work, but don’t be afraid call it a day if it isn’t and look for someone else. Or perhaps, time allowing, you might end up with more than one BB, where both if you can fill different gaps for one another.
Final thoughts
I’d love to know more about your experiences – if you BB, or if you’d like to. And if you’d like to find out more about MIB Network and maybe come along to become part of our lovely community then click here to sign up to receive our emails.
Claire