Inside Small Business | Small Business & Home Business Marketing

Why You Need a Robust Network

Marcelo Cazado, Executive Director, Floripa Angels
In my last post I mentioned that we launched Floripa Angels, a business angel association in Southern Brazil. Managing such an association of venture capital investors is more or less like managing any other type of business. We need to track the strategic planning, cash flow, key business indicators and client satisfaction.

Well, last week we were involved in a buyout negotiation with 4 other guys that – with the exception of the 2 entrepreneurs – had never seen each other before. At that moment I could realize how important is to have the “right” contacts when you are doing business on your own.

When you work for a corporation, you are sort of “given” a network. Since the first days you are introduced to your co-workers, your team and normally your boss is the one who selects you during the recruiting process.

Also in a corporation, people are allocated in departments, corporate headquarters monitor what is being done, the way of running the company is based on hierarchical structures and the strategy is passed on through memos, conferences and staff meetings.

However, these days, communication costs are many times negligible and it is absolutely common to work in a more networked way with people working geographically dispersed.

In our case, we could say that Floripa Angels is born global. Providing evidence: our logo was made by Logoworks from USA; our site construction was managed by a Brazilian guy running his business in London who hires programmers from India and Iran; at our first investment opportunity we partnered with a venture fund located at the British Virgin Islands and managed by an Argentinean guy; our IT helpdesk guy lives in Rio de Janeiro; and our web site translators are two, a French lady living in Venezuela and a lady from Puerto Rico living in Ghana. Definitely, the world is flat.

With some of these people we have a commercial relationship while others work with us on a voluntary and ad hoc basis. Yet relationships built on trust are essential if networked forms of doing business are in place. People simply will not put themselves on the line for a new idea unless they trust and feel connected with the leaders of the venture.

When you are an entrepreneur, most of the times you feel like waging a war on yourself and any help is welcome. It is fantastic if you can inspire enough trust to build meaningful relationships and if you are able to bind special people together and to make things happen.

That is the beauty of starting up your own business. Along the way you may find some people who will support your idea by offering orientation, friendship, trust, consideration. The type of things you cannot buy and that cannot be seen with the naked eye.

Marcelo Cazado is Executive Director of Floripa Angels, a business angel association based in Florianopolis, Brazil

Posted on Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 at 10:40 am and is filed under Business, Entrepreneurship, Leadership. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.