How the someone-who-knows-someone scenarios help business owners of color succeed

Entrepreneurship is one of the most challenging paths one can take professionally. And it can be one of the most rewarding. To have an idea and then bring it to fruition is not just a testament to what is possible through determination and tenacity, but it speaks to the power behind human behavior and relationships.

As someone who returns to freelance work over and over, and recently started a business, I understand how the people I know and the strength of my relationships directly impact my ability to move certain projects forward. My experience as a business advisor and ecosystem navigator for small business owners of color underscored the importance of connections and collaborative partners. 

The fabric of an entrepreneur’s experience starts thin and frayed, thickening over time as we build relationships. The ideas we move forward involve a series of non-linear events, including accessing people in various sectors outside the one we are in. Leaning on people we know is natural and certainly one of the strongest resources we have when we are starting out. For business owners, our inner networks are essential to getting started and building momentum. And they can only take us so far.

As business owners of color, there is an added layer in that we are navigating systems not built by us. Our cultures and lived experiences do not always align with protocols and criteria established for accessing resources like capital loans and business networking, both necessary for growth and rarely inherent to our inner networks. 

It is fascinating how the most significant momentum we gain will not come from our closest relationships, or strong ties, but rather from those on the outer edges of our network—our weak ties. Generally speaking, this is because the opportunities our close connections know about are opportunities we are already aware of because we go to the same events, read the same blogs, and are on the same email lists. However, rich opportunities and exciting collaborations orbit our outer networks, which are just one degree of separation away.

In my experience as a small business owner, my greatest and most exciting successes to date have emerged from relationships with people who know my people. In my role as a business advisor and navigator, I have heard profound client success stories that came out of similar someone-who-knows-someone scenarios. 

You can understand how when a friend makes an email introduction to someone they believe you should be acquainted with, the social pressure to respond is strong. On the other hand, if there is something you need an answer to that your close connections are unable to help with, it will be your weak ties—the people connected to your network with whom you are not directly connected—that will propel you forward.

The adage, “We don’t know what we don’t know,” is perhaps more resonant in the entrepreneurial landscape than anywhere else.

The Role of the Ecosystem

Entrepreneurship is not a new focus for small business service providers and funders. The interconnected effort among government agencies and “ecosystem builders,” however, has been growing and will continue to as data illustrates the power of collaborations to impact communities.

Ecosystem builders who connect and convene, direct service providers who advise and deliver resources, funders who provide capital, and bureaucrats who hold up infrastructure are important threads in an entrepreneur’s fabric. The strong and weak ties among providers within the ecosystem are an interesting piece to explore, as they certainly correlate with the impact on an entrepreneur’s journey. 

It is essential that business advisors and navigators understand what services and resources are available in their community, if and how they are connected, and how they are accessed. In order to understand this web of information, members of the ecosystem have a responsibility to be and stay connected to one another. 

A healthy, thriving ecosystem supports and nourishes everyone through strong service and resource provision, deduplicated effort, and closed gaps. 

A healthy, thriving ecosystem offers business advisors and navigators what they need, when they need it in order to meaningfully support the entrepreneurs they serve.

A healthy, thriving ecosystem exists through a powerful web of ties, strong and weak, held by those within the ecosystem. These ties will bring entrepreneurs into the ecosystem, connecting them to the very resources developed to support them.

Entrepreneurship is often considered a solitary endeavor, but that is far from the truth. In reality, every entrepreneur exists within an ecosystem, where resources, wisdom, and the power of community are never more than a connection or two away. 

CONNECT THE DOTS: 

Startup Genome, a startup market research firm based in San Francisco, analyzed six U.S. metropolitan areas which included Albuquerque. Our level of local connectedness among entrepreneurs and stakeholders, including the frequency of interaction and number of meaningful relationships, is higher than the global average. Read the full report here.