SENSSE

We’re on for a new meeting date and place: Monday, November 15th @ 6:30 PM!  We’ll be meeting at the Scibelli Enterprise Center in Technology Park across from the STCC campus (Bldg. 101).  This is the same building that houses MSBDC, SCORE, The Deliso Videoconferencing Center and the Springfield Business Incubator.

This will be a casual meet and greet event where you’ll get to meet with our Community Business Guides (CBGs) as well as learn about each other. Details will be posted soon.

Collaboration as the New Competition:

Like the seemingly passive paper in the game ‘rock, paper, scissors’, collaboration is an underestimated but game-changing power-move.

As more solo and micro businesses pop up, they’re learning the secret of how working in-step with each other can open many more doors than either can alone. Three examples of collaboration popped onto my radar in the last couple of weeks:

I heard a fascinating interview with business consultant, Kare Anderson of “Moving From Me to We” talking about differentiation and collaboration on Dawn River Baker’s Microbusiness Conversation podcast.

Partnerships: a conversation with Kare Anderson

(Scroll to the August 23rd show to download or play.) She zeros in on a lot of the key points to joining forces to thrive in this economy. If you’re intrigued by the idea of teaming up with other microbusinesses it’s definitely worth a listen.

Local Alliance Forming:

Recently I’ve watched a simple link post (“Let me Show You Inside a Secret Blogging Alliance”) on Facebook evolve into what could be the beginning of an exciting multi-pronged support and promotion network. Local, blogger and mindful marketing consultant, Shalini Bahl posted a story about 7 bloggers who joined forces to help support each other, improve each others writing and exposure all along with starting to monetize their efforts through shared sponsorship dollars.

The resulting replies inspired her to create the Western Mass Blogging Alliance, which has now become a LinkedIn Group actively discussing how we can utilize these ideas – together.

Don’t Eat Lunch Alone – Springfield:

I was seriously jealous the first time I heard about DELA (Don’t Eat Lunch Alone) group in Shelburne Falls. Secretly I whined, “Why can’t we have something cool like that in Springfield?”  Well, now we can!

Social Media blogger and consultant, Daniel Lieberman of Shelburne Falls launched this tradition in Franklin county and has instigated a new Springfield chapter which will meeting the 1st and 3rd Thursday of each month at the beautiful South Congregational Church on Maple Street in Springfield.

I made one of these lunches up in Shelburne a few months back along with a couple of friends, entrepreneur Ali Usman and his wife, author, Lisa. It’s hosted at Generation Sustain shared office space in Shelburne Falls.

It was a casual mix of business, techie and creative types who either worked for themselves, or independently, with lot’s of friendly banter, ideas and business card exchanging.  I didn’t want lunch to end.

Though not specifically a collaboration project, it’s this kind of friendly, loose-knit networking that provides the broth for such alliances.

The Springfield DELA group started this last Thursday and looks to be a perfect seed for that same kind of interactive, cross-pollination medium that stokes new business ideas and activity.   I wholeheartedly encourage you to join us.

It’s open to all micro and solo business owners, and other independent business, techie and creative types.

~ Trish Truitt