How much do you know about what is happening around you? I don’t mean right beside you or in your office rather in your community.
I had the opportunity to attend a ‘State of the County’ event hosted by my local Chamber. This is an opportunity to learn about the community you serve both on a micro (the city you live in) and state level.
I have a more concrete idea of how external factors are impacting local and statewide business. It also gave me some ideas about how I might be able to give back to my local community.
Even if you don’t have local clients it is helpful to understand your community- for instance, sales tax just went down and there is another tax increase on the ballot this fall- now I understand why that increase has been requested.
Even if the local economy doesn’t impact your customers it may impact your business. Local can mean anything from municipality to your entire state (province) or country depending on the scope of your business. Taxes, shortages, overages, environmental factors impact you regardless of the size of your ‘local’.
Participating in your community can bring rewards of its own and provide benefits that may not have much to do with your business. Then again, you never know until you get out there. I recently discovered that I have only 1 degree of separation between me and the Gates Foundation Board, another person I met has Oprah’s ear, and another regularly works with large oil companies. Do I have an immediate need for these contacts? Not today, but I may in the future and it is worth cultivating relationships with the people involved.
Stay connected to your community, the virtual and the real one.
Jennifer, great point that you just never know who you are meeting. 1 degree of separation is very close. Thanks for the reminder!