“Learning from others” is a popular way small business owners seek answers and make decisions. Whether it’s hiring a professional coach or consultant, finding a volunteer mentor, or joining a small group of similar business owners in your hometown or industry, building a network of trusted advisors has never been easier — or more valuable.

Rex Hammock, President of Hammock Publishing Inc. joins host Anita Campbell in this Small Business Trends Radio broadcast to inspire you to develop a professional network. Rex should know: he says that virtually ALL — 100% — of his business has come through his network of contacts.

Listen and you will hear:

• Why running a small business is like being in a perpetual job search.

• Why 20% or more of your time should be spent on networking.

• Why startup business owners and newbie consultants need to jump on networking early on when they first start out.

Date: February 14, 2006

Duration: 60 minutes

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Other highlights of this show include Anita Campbell’s regular feature, Today’s Trend. This Today’s Trend segment is about how relationships play a huge role in attracting new small business customers. Fully 83% of those in a recent survey say they find small business customers through referrals and another 52% find them through networking events. Read a summary of the survey results.

About Rex Hammock

Rex Hammock is publisher and editor one of America’s largest-circulation small business magazines, NFIB’s MyBusiness. He is founder and president of Hammock Publishing and is the creator of Smallbusiness.com.

His company website is Hammock.com. He also blogs at RexBlog.

Other Resources

In addition to the above websites, the following were discussed during the broadcast as organizations or places to develop professional networks:

TEC (The Executive Committee) - www.teconline.com
EO (Entrepreneurs’ Org.) - www.eonetwork.org
NFIB (National Federation of Independent Businesses) - www.nfib.org
Wikipedia - www.en.wikipedia.org
LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com
MeetUp - www.meetup.com