Last Friday I had a good networking day; one of our Twitter followers reached out to me and asked if I could help out on her website (she runs a lovely forum / information site that aims to help people moving). So I popped over there and provided some information; which she kindly thanked me for.
I also discovered a Twitter networking event called #ConnectFriday. This event is for ethical, sustainable, and kind to the environment businesses can all 'meet' and find out what each other does. This means that I can meet and network with people who may run small independent yarn businesses that I could buy my cotton or bamboo off for knitting the softies. We could discover a FSC wooden box maker for Anna's memory boxes, perhaps even a new supplier for our gift wrap cotton or ribbons! I grew up in a country where shopping local, recycling & being aware (kind) of the environment was a way of life not an ethos that people could buy into or brand themselves with. We never saw the word 'eco-' until we moved back to the UK.
Anna & I try to adopt this in our business as well as personal lives - we work with people who use natural materials - sustainable natural materials, or who upcycle materials. Not only do we work with these people but we share their business successes, we let other people know about them, we link to their websites from ours, we retweet their Twitter tweets & share their Facebook status updates. We'll put their flyers out with ours and generally use them as our preferred suppliers.
So today's blog is in honour of all those fellow small businesses that do the same for us - in particular David Earp - Shuktara, Marie Travell - Rainbow Cakes, Joanne McGowen - Act One Adventures, and of course Anna - Godalming Independent Market. These four people are consistently there, networking with us.
Thank you guys, you'll be the first 4 businesses I 'shout out' on the Twitter & Facebook #ConnectFriday event I'll be doing.
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