Independent consultants have it sort of tough.  Don’t cry for us; the liberties we enjoy make it pretty awesome as well.  But for sure the risk and uncertainty is balanced out (or sometimes, it’s not!) by the freedom to choose our hours and our clients…the work we do and don’t do.  It’s certainly a lifestyle and you have to want to live this way to do this sort of work.  There’s nothing wrong at all with the more corporate way of living (and I’ve done that plenty as well).  It’s simply a matter of choosing what’s the right fit for you and what makes you happy.  It’s a different type of work, and how you do it is not the same as when you’re an employee.

One of the things we independents do a lot is network.  I’ve been, at different times, a member of several networking groups—some paid, some free; some very structured, some more ad-hoc.  I’ve also done plenty of freelance networking by simply finding myself in places where other businesspeople congregate.  I’m always on the lookout for new people to meet and new business experiences.  I wrote a while back about how I’m a ‘greedy’ networker:  I look for people with talents and experience my clients and prospective clients may need, that way I can help beyond my own skills.

It’s important to understand what others are trying to get out of the practice of networking.  Once I was part of a network that would randomly match members up for one-on-one meetings; we’d go into each call without knowing the other participant.  It was helpful at the beginning to establish what we were each trying to accomplish.  One time the other guy simply said, “I’m just here to practice my pitch.  Do you mind if we do that?”  He wasn’t trying to sell to me (after all, he had no idea if I was a proper client for his services anyway); he just wanted practice.  And here’s where we got to two real purposes of networking:  biz dev, and business development.

Surely those two seem the same, but here’s where they differ:

Biz dev is what we all know it to be:  looking for clients; filling the funnel.  Biz dev is more or less what most transactional solopreneurs who go to networking events with a stack of their cards are trying to accomplish.  Think, for example, of personal trainers, realtors, auto and property insurance salespeople:  They’re hoping to run into someone who has a need for what they sell (or perhaps someone who knows someone who is) and make that connection.  There’s nothing wrong with that…it’s just business people trying to sell.  And yes, they’re also looking to socialize and meet new people.  And it’s not to suggest that there’s not a degree of trust and personal connection involved.  But in the end, this biz dev is filling the funnel.

The other thing, business development, is the sort of thing that goes on in mastermind groups or curated networking circles.  You can also build your own circle of trusted collaborators on whom you can rely for advice and guidance.  Here you’re doing development work on your business, and that can range anywhere from marketing (how should I do that other thing, the biz dev?) to roadblock-clearing and getting through challenges (I have a client who didn’t pay on time…what do you suggest I do about it?).  This is also helpful in bouncing ideas off others who are, if not necessarily in your business exactly, at least in business for themselves and can offer perspective.  Things like new product offerings, pricing mechanisms, advice about third-party service providers, and sometimes looking for collaboration opportunities with clients.  This can be administrative or developmental in scope, and it’s kind of simply a way to leverage the thoughts, insights, and skills of those in your circle.

Naturally sometimes (as with developing co-delivery experiences) these both—biz dev and business development—can happen at the same time.  We can all multi-task, after all.

But it’s helpful to understand why you’re going into any networking interaction and what you’re trying to get out of it:  Are you looking for leads and to get new folks into your system as potential clients or Customers?  Or are you looking for advice from someone who can offer you outside perspective and has maybe had similar issues come up themselves?

Again, you don’t have to choose just one, but it’s helpful to set expectations, and helps you keep your contacts in a state of order.