28: Find Yourself a Business Bestie

Makers Gonna Sell: A Podcast for Creative Entrepreneurs with Cheryl Ham and Nicky Avery

After weeks apart doing solo podcast episodes, the stars have aligned, and fate has finally reunited us! It’s a double the flavor, double the fun episode with both Cheryl and Nicky back from our solo journeys and we’re happy to be together again. This happy meeting has reminded us how important it is to have a business friend to share all the feelings of running a business, and if you don’t have one yet we’re laying out everything that we’ve learned finding each other and what the differences are between a friend in your personal life and someone to share our business adventures with.

You wouldn’t think that having a business friend that you can share your wins and worries with would be an important part of being a successful business owner, but when it really gets right down to it, being able to share your experiences with someone who’s been there before, or who might be able to give some insight, that kind of relationship can be invaluable. We don’t know where we would be if we couldn’t send each other messages of encouragement or bounce our frustrations off of each other. Hopefully our experience can help you find the right person for you to connect with and create your own business friend!

Key Takeaways:

- The importance of Business friendships cannot be overstated - if you’re going to be a successful business owner, you need to have a network you can relate to all those highs and lows

- Personal friendships mean well, but they’re no substitute for someone who is going through or has been through a similar experience

- Your peers are looking for those types of relationships too! Don’t be afraid to reach out and start talking

Quotes:

“Because we're business owners, our work takes up so much of our time that our family members, our children, our parents, our significant others, they all want to be there and to be supportive of us. But if we don't have actual business buddies, kind of separate from those people, then all we have is our family and our like regular life friends to talk to about our business and it can get repetitive.” – Cheryl

“When you run into a problem, a business friend can usually see things from a different perspective and has the experience to see things that we miss because we're so close to it.” – Nicky

“At some point, if you want to have a friendship, you need to trust somebody. If you're not comfortable with people in your own industry, look for people outside of your industry. Your business friend does not have to be somebody within your industry; it can be somebody who does something completely different.” – Cheryl

“But you will surprise yourself. When we started talking, it was about if I had a question or just wanted to run something by her. But slowly it just evolved into this amazing friendship.” – Nicky

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