In our forthcoming book on ‘networking for busy female professionals’, we are profiling some great female networkers. We caught up with Elinor Barbary, to hear her story.
Elinor Barbary is a virtual assistant and personal concierge dedicated to giving creative professionals the time to focus on doing what they love. She has eight years experience of working in marketing and administration and an inherent love of the creative process. Being a talented organiser in a family of artists has equipped her with the skills to merge these two attributes together and create Barbary Solutions; a business which aims to fill the gap between art and business
At the time of writing Elinor’s business, Barbary Solutions is still very much in it’s infancy. Elinor set up Barbary Solutions, a Bristol based company created specifically for creative professionals. With only a very small amount of start-up capital, Elinor decided to solely market her business via on-line and face-to-face networking.
Like many females, Elinor found the formal breakfast networking groups such as BNI very intimidating, and so chose networking groups and events which she would feel comfortable in, and could “ease herself into the group”
Elinor’s approach to networking is very simple, she shows up for nearly every meeting or event of the three groups she attends, and aims to connect with people and build a relationship with them. When networking, Elinor focuses on being herself and giving into the relationship. As Elinor demonstrates, work will come to you if you focus on building relationships and giving into relationships. This has resulted in her winning five clients in two months, with many more people in her network talking to her about how they can use her services.
Elinor’s golden rules for networking are:
- Choose to network where people well connected to your target market hang out
- Be yourself
- Regularly show up to events and meetings
- Focus on building relationships rather than selling
- Help people out without looking for a reward
If you feel that you have a great networking success story that you want to shout about…
I am looking for females who believe that they do some aspect of networking well, and would be happy to have a profile and case study written about them. If you would like some free PR and think that this could be you, please get in touch, (heather@theefficiencycoach.co.uk)
How can I make sure I get one of the first copies of ‘networking for busy female professionals’?
If you would like to pre-register to receive a signed copy of the book, please fill in your details in the form, and we will send you sample chapters when they become available, progress updates with the book, and details of how to get one of the first copies of the book.
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