To set up a good business you actually need to be a jack of all trades. Coming up with an idea, setting up a plan, having financial overview, doing market research, and of course: building a network. A strong network is very important for the success of your business. Both to find customers and people with whom you can work together and who can help you further. Reina Boels, an entrepreneur from Groningen with her own consultancy firm in the field of sustainable building, indicates how important it is to work with other entrepreneurs. As a self-employed person she likes to work together with other self-employed business(wo)men. That way you build a network of self-employed people and you feel less like you’re on your own sometimes. For example, she asked a befriended entrepreneur to build her website and she taught Reina as well how to maintain it herself. Reina then recommends her to other self-employed people who need a website and the two of them help each other out!
Building a strong network, of course, applies to all entrepreneurs. But, as Reina also agrees, as a female entrepreneur, and if you also have a different cultural background, it can sometimes be just a bit harder to fight for your place in a world with mostly male entrepreneurs.
So make sure you gather people around you who can help you and whom you can help further! There can be networks in your city of other female
