Every job brings with it a group of co-workers.
Because we don’t get to choose our co-workers, this group of people can turn out to be your best friends, your biggest source of workplace unhappiness, or a mixture of both.
For many of us who have had traditional jobs, getting away from dealing with an offensive co-worker or two is one of the perks of no longer working outside the home.
In turn, a big advantage of entrepreneurship can be that you get to choose who you work with, which means you choose your joint venture partners and you choose who to hire and who you’ll contract with.
So you have no co-workers in the traditional sense.
No one who is your equal who you have to play office politics with, share a lunch room with, sit through meetings with and watch them pick their teeth.
While this is generally considered a benefit of entrepreneurship, it actually puts you at a disadvantage.
Being an entrepreneur can be very lonely personally, and from a standpoint of having no one to bounce ideas off of or learn from.
Co-workers are a missing piece in your business that you’ll want to fill from the very beginning.
Talk to any successful entrepreneur and she’ll tell you that she didn’t do it alone.
And that if she started out alone, her failures revealed to her the impossibility of being successful when you work alone.
Your Entrepreneurial Co-Workers
Now obviously, as an entrepreneur you’re not going to have traditional co-workers, thank goodness.
You’re the boss and for starters anyway, your business is likely a one woman operation.
Who fills the need for entrepreneurial co-workers then?
Other entrepreneurs who are very similar to you.
They’re also running their business alone, or at least started out that way before becoming successful enough to build a team.
Some of your co-workers will be at day one and zero dollars in their business, and some will have years of experience and six or seven figure bank accounts to show for it.
Finding Your Tribe
In the entrepreneurial space we often refer to these people as our “tribe” because it’s a much more accurate and fitting description than “co-worker.”
Tribes are groups of entrepreneurs who are connected online who follow a certain online business “guru” (for lack of a better word), or who are all following a similar path to growing their business.
Your tribe can also be a local group that is connected in real life and meets regularly in person. Such groups can be found on Meetup.com.
They are less common because you are excluding so many people from your world if you only connect with those within driving distance of you, and it can be tough for stay at home moms to all get together at the same time outside the house.
While an in-person group probably won’t be your primary tribe, meeting people in real life does add a layer to the relationship that is just impossible online.
If you are fortunate enough to develop an in-real-life tribe, definitely go for it. They will likely become your core layer of support and inspiration.
Most commonly these days for tribe building are Facebook groups. Yes LinkedIn has groups, Google Plus has groups, there are forums outside of Facebook, but the easiest way to find your tribe today is through Facebook groups.
Some of the groups are organized around one leader who is a successful business person and offers coaching programs to others. Coffee With Dan is an example.
The best groups in this category are ones that have grown enough that the leader isn’t even the focus of the group. There are enough involved members that people are asking and answering questions and providing value well beyond what the group leader can do alone.
Other groups form around a leader’s teachings. Dan Kennedy Students No B.S. Inner Circle is an example. It’s not an official group started by Dan Kennedy, and he’s not involved in the group. The people there all follow his teachings and advice, and the group is a place for them to gather and provide information and support to one another.
Then there are the groups that are usually started by an expert, but focus on one broader way of growing your business. Tube Ritual - Video Marketing is an example. It’s a group for anyone who wants to learn to grow their business using YouTube.
These groups exist for every business growth tactic you can imagine, including using Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn, Facebook ads, being a speaker, an author, and literally anything.
If you have a tactic in mind for growing your business, type it in the Facebook search bar and you’ll find your tribe.
Which Tribe to Join
Unfortunately, heading over to Facebook and hoping to stumble upon the right group of people to connect with isn’t going to happen.
With thousands of groups to choose from, it’s almost impossible to know where to start.
The good news is, once you do get started, you’ll find no shortage of groups to connect with.
And don’t feel like you have to settle on just one tribe. You may end up with one core group that become “your people,” or there may be 3-4 different groups that resonate with you for different reasons and provide different value to your business.
More good news for you — because you’re connected with Kids Party Characters and owner Cheryl Jacobs, you can skip over all the time-consuming struggle of figuring out where you fit in and start by joining the Kids Party Characters Global Facebook group.
As an experienced business mentor, Cheryl can help you get connected with other like-minded people and recommend the groups that have given her the most value.
A Word of Caution
As you start joining different groups, Facebook will recommend more groups for you on the right hand side of your Facebook feed, your friends will recommend groups, you’ll get on email lists of people who will recommend groups . . . it’s not uncommon to find yourself a member of 200 groups, seriously.
Only a few, 3-4 max, will offer real value to you and deserve real time from you.
Leave the rest or only check them once a week.
Facebook groups are fun. More fun than some of the work you need to be doing in your business.
Oftentimes that person who seems to always be in the Facebook group adding value in every way is dead broke. Because she spends her whole day in Facebook groups.
While your tribe and support network are vital to your business success, they’re worthless if you aren’t doing the daily revenue generating activities that give you a business in the first place.
What You Need to Do Today
To get started finding your tribe, join us in our Facebook group at Kids Party Characters Global.
Next, schedule a call with owner Cheryl Jacobs if you are a new or struggling entrepreneur, a stay at home mom who dreams of having your own business, or an entrepreneur looking to add an income stream.
Cheryl has taken much of the hard work out of starting your own business by offering memberships to KidsPartyCharacters.com.
With membership, you’ll have an exclusive territory in which to book parties, access to our 200 plus costumes, along with our acting coach and casting director, and ongoing training and support from Cheryl and all the team at KidsPartyCharacters.com
If you think this might be the business for you, book your no-pressure chat with Cheryl at KidsPartyCharacters.com and she’ll answer all your questions and help your entrepreneurial life get off to a fast start.
Also keep up with KidsPartyCharacters.com by connecting with our Facebook page for daily updates, as well as ideas and inspirations for your next party.
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