How Business Networking Can Benefit Entrepreneurs (In Unexpected Ways!)

How Business Networking Can Benefit Entrepreneurs (In Unexpected Ways!)

(Publishers note: Although he’s incredibly busy these days! (Completing his recent transition.) I somehow managed to get my coach, mentor and friend . Seven figure earning Internet marketing expert and ecommerce specialist James , “he’s definitely all that and a bag of chips” McAllister.

To please find the time to do another guest blog post for me. And once again he literally hit it out of the park with his extremely keen, real world insights. So I know you’ll gain benefits from him doing so. (In more ways than one.)  Because he definitely tells it like it is. Thanks again coach! And without further ado take it away coach!)

Life is full of hard decisions, and for entrepreneurs these seem to come on a weekly basis.

Many of us start a business to escape our jobs, the thing that holds us captive and prevents us from doing what we really want to in life. We crave freedom, the ability to make our own choices and do work that aligns with our true purpose in life.

But what happens when your business grows so large, it becomes the very thing you were trying to escape from?

I recently had to make a very tough decision – a choice to pass off my growing eCommerce companies to another person, in order to regain a bit of my life back and focus on what I do best – internet marketing work, and building content-based businesses online.

Out of all the tough decisions I’ve had to make over the company’s 5 year history, this was perhaps one of the hardest.

                       Networking Is More Than Just Business

Mark and I have known each other since 2015.

A long time, right? I think so, especially when you consider that most new blogs today don’t last longer than a year.

But here we both are, still pushing on.

Over the years, I’ve gotten to work closely with Mark as a coach to him. Of course, he has returned the favor and always been there to help when I needed it.

One thing that really fascinates me about networking and forming meaningful connections with people is that you never really know how that will benefit you in the future. It’s hard to quantify or assign an ROI to networking. Yet when you look back on the connections you make, you’ll likely find that the time you spent developing them rewards you more than almost anything else does.

Often, in unexpected ways you couldn’t predict.

When I was at a loss for what to do, I contacted Mark. Shortly thereafter we got together on Zoom, and I laid it all out for him.

We discussed what the change would entail – moving the company to another city, and myself personally moving to another part of the country. The challenges, fears, and benefits that doing so would provide. I wasn’t exactly sure that it was the right choice, and truth be told, I was very nervous.

Mark is a savvy guy though, and was able to provide a lot of insights and perspective that I hadn’t really thought about before. If I remember correctly, I hadn’t entirely made my mind up by the end of the call, but I had an increasingly growing amount of confidence throughout it that whatever choice I ended up making would be the right one.

Looking back on it now, I can’t help but wonder – what was that call worth? If I had to put a price on it, how much value did it provide to me?

This was a decision that affected the entire direction of my life and my future, and will forever be a pivotal moment of my life.

Networking as a personal growth strategy is still criminally underrated. This event took 5 years of networking and building a friendship to occur. If it were the only piece of value I got out of the relationship, I would still consider it to be worth it (and of course, it isn’t. Every contact with Mark is great!)

So, What Were The Insights?

I’m surely not the first person to go through an experience like this, so I wanted to share some of the insights that were developed during and after my call with Mark, in case somebody else can benefit from them.

1. No Long-Term Business Should Be Controlled By Another Entity

Although it wasn’t the only source, Amazon made up a large portion of my eCommerce revenue. In many ways, we’d be in a lot of trouble if they were to shut us down.

Unfortunately, it seems like that’s something they do almost at random, and no amount of money you’re bringing in for them matters.

The company would survive without Amazon, but this was a constant source of anxiety and honestly cost us a lot of wasted time. Amazon changes policy frequently, and too much of my day was spent trying to please them rather than building up the self-sufficient aspects of the company.

I vowed to never again be in a position of such vulnerability.

2. Certain Business Models Cater To Certain People

I knew this one pretty early on, but as the company grew it became increasingly obvious.

Although I’m definitely a workaholic (especially when I enjoy the business) there are other things I want to enjoy in life than just work.

The eCommerce business model did not allow me to do that, at all. There were constant distractions that needed immediate attention, and the onslaught of problems were not exciting or interesting to me. All businesses have problems, but the problems tend to vary between business models.

I think it’s important to think early on about what your day-to-day work life will look like once your company grows. We tend to focus on what we need to do in order not to fail, but we rarely think about what will happen if we succeed.

Making that kind of money is great, but not when it comes at the expense of literally everything else.

3. Do What You’re Best At

People enjoy things they have a natural talent for.

It was worth it to step away from eCommerce to do what’s always come natural to me – creating and publishing content, then marketing it like crazy.

The fact that (for the most part) it comes naturally makes it far more enjoyable and causes far less frustration.

Although I excelled at much of the strategy and marketing behind my eCommerce brands, I was not personally equipped to deal with the constant distractions, customer issues and logistics.

I learned that I work best when I am able to focus best on one task at once until it’s completed. I get in my zone, and become 10x more productive.

The eCommerce business model, with all of the shipments and the staff, left me constantly feeling like I was getting nothing done despite literally living in my office.

4. You’ll Succeed Anyway

I apologize in advance if I sound full of myself here.

I believe that with the right mentality, you’ll eventually succeed regardless of what happens with your current business. If you’re able to continue getting back up and giving it your all despite the hardships, eventually you’ll make it.

The amount of money I walked away from is nothing to scoff at, and most people would think I’m crazy (or stupid) for doing so.

However, I truly believe that I will do just as well running businesses I actually enjoy, even if it takes a little bit longer.

Keeping this in mind makes it much easier to deal with short-term setbacks.

5. Happiness Matters

If your business makes you miserable and there is no end in sight, then there is no point in running it.

You’re better off working a regular job. At least then, you’re only miserable for 40 hours a week, and you can tune it out when you get home.

During the final Christmas shopping season, my girlfriend and I worked 40 hour shifts – not 40 hour work weeks, 40 hour shifts. We slept on a popped air mattress on my office floor. I was depressed and had an entire host of health problems. I became a bad friend to people that I was close to, and a poor leader to my employees..

I was not myself. And I was probably less productive because of it.

Your happiness not only affects your productivity and how effectively you’re able to work, it also affects everyone else around you.

It’s no way to succeed in business, in any case.

Conclusion

This decision wasn’t easy, and there was so much to think about. As for what’s next, I plan to continue building up my network of niche websites, including my newest, a website about musical instruments called Musical Sanctuary. I’ll also continue sharing business and marketing tips on my blog, JamesMcAllisterOnline.com.

I feel incredibly thankful for Mark and the guidance he’s provided to me over the years. He’s been a wonderful friend of mine and I appreciate the opportunity to share some of my story here.

I hope you’ve found some part of this helpful. If you’re ever in a similar situation feel free to reach out to me over on my website! I’d love to help in any way that I can.

To your success,

– James McAllister