A biz bestie is your ally in your venture. A champion, supporter, spokesperson. And much more!
It could be a business peer, friend, mentor, a co-founder, an advisor, a supporter, investor, and even spouse or sibling.
But there’s more.
Business besties are the best investment for an entrepreneur – a network of support and growth!
The relationship between you and your besties doesn’t necessarily have to be a formal one. By its very nature, a lot of besties are the ones who you meet in the course of your work, and connect with due to shared business interests and synergies. Or simply because you like each other and enjoy exchanging ideas.
Here are great ways to find a bestie with the potential to become a business partner!
You might meet a lot of people at events, or while networking and on social media, even co-working spaces. But not everyone can become your bestie, even though you might enjoy the interaction. Since the relationship isn’t contractual, it’s very important to invest in and nurture the right relationships for them to sustain and flourish.
How can a business bestie help you and your business?
Share plans and goals
A bestie can be a great sounding board for your work.
If you’re launching a new product or improving your website, running it past someone who is both a potential customer and a fellow entrepreneur can help. It can save you from the tunnel vision of executing your ideas alone. Depending on your comfort level, you can share details or not.
Review & critique
Similarly, you can ask them to assess an existing campaign or product line or even your content. What do they think of your blog? Does your Instagram feed look inviting? Is your eCommerce page easy to navigate? Or even, listen to your sales pitch and applaud or suggest improvements.
Accountability
Entrepreneurship is lonely in another way – the need to set and work towards your milestones all by yourself! If you share your goals and be accountable to someone, it can act as a great catalyst in making you work harder and in a more focused way.
Want to take your relationship further and collaborate with a bestie? Get these 14 creative ideas.
How do you choose a business bestie?
Not everyone can become your bestie – lot of acquaintances will fall way short of that and that is fine too. However, before you spend your time and resources in cultivating relationships, assess that they bring at least a few qualities that can be valuable.
Ideally, a business bestie must have a few key qualities.
They bring complementary skills and strengths
Someone who thinks differently from you in the business sense is a great asset. Are you a creative soul? Then talk to someone who is more process and systems oriented. Are you shy about promoting yourself? An outgoing sales oriented friend can give you a new perspective.
They are forthright
It takes a brave person to offer criticism and possibly wobble a relationship, but sometimes candor is important. If you are staking money and efforts in your ideas, why not talk to someone who can tell you how it is, rather than say what they think you want to hear.
They motivate and support
Having said that, a bestie can also help you build personal traction. Even if they are not your accountability buddy – and you don’t need too many – they can lift you up, even help you ride out a setback or a funk.
They are your brand champion
Not just someone who motivates you, but also acknowledge your work in smaller settings or bigger ones. Whether it’s a recommendation or a referral, sharing your achievements or even using their influence to further your interests, they are open to working to get you ahead.
They are co-dreamers
The ability to come up with ideas together is priceless and often hard to find in an entrepreneurial setting. But if you can find a kindred soul with whom you can occasionally brainstorm and ideate, the results can be awesome!
They practice discretion
Given all that you might possibly share with a bestie, pick someone whom you can trust to keep the information to themselves.
Feeling the love for your Biz bestie? Watch this video and join the conversation to celebrate/toast them.
How to make the most of a relationship with your business bestie?
Connect regularly
Depending on your locations, you can meet at regular intervals or chat via video or Zoom calls. Informal meetings can be a great avenue to exchange ideas and developments. Whatever you do, stay in touch.
Communicate frequently
Apart from meetings, set up a channel where you can communicate on an ongoing basis. If you are a group of besties, set up a text chat or one on FB Messenger or Whatsapp. Conversations, even transactional ones, can strengthen relationships!
Share a resource pool
Exchanging ideas, resources and content is a great way to share learnings. You can choose to share on the same platform as listed above or a different one like a Google Doc where you can park ideas, article links, even podcasts and videos for others to use. Make it meaningful with a brief note on why what you’re sharing adds value to others.
Here’s an example of a WhatsApp group of entrepreneurs sharing useful tips and advice.
Share resources and add your insights to them!
Recommend, shout-outs, tags
Testimonials are the best compliment! Post a reco on Facebook Groups, tag someone on Instagram or LinkedIn, endorse if you have worked together. if you haven’t done business, you can always post an announcement or share an event of theirs.
Celebrate wins together
This is a huge benefit of having buddies from your sphere. Often times, your family and friends might not realize that getting on the first page of Google search, or landing a deal with an Instagram influencer is a big deal, but those in your sphere of business will. So find those who toast your wins just like you will.
Don’t forget to have fun!
Whether it’s a GNOL, simply hanging out or adding humor to your daily interactions, mixing an element of fun has a positive impact on every relationship. Or you could sing some fun things to your #BizBestie.
Cos we’re living, in an entrepreneurial world and you’re my favorite girl!
Final words
Again, having biz besties is all about building your tribe. It takes work and often, many missteps too. But with time, you will instinctively know which are the partners you can work with, and which you can celebrate, grow with, get support, motivation and feedback.
Even tough love when it’s called for.
Tell us about your biz besties and why they rock!
Pooja Krishna is an Entrepreneur, Business Mentor and Mom. She has worked both in large corporates and managed startups over the last 20+ years.
She’s a co-founder at Maroon Oak, and is founded Win Thinks, where she writes, speaks and teaches about Digital Media, Brand Building and Future Ready Businesses. A day trader for over a decade, Pooja launched Trading Paces to educate amateur and pro stock traders. As a classroom mentor, Pooja loves teaching students across the U.S. about job skills and entrepreneurship. Read about her on Huffington Post and Forbes.
A trivia buff and yoga & hula hoop enthusiast, she’s discovering the pleasure of drawing Zentangle patterns for ‘creative mindfulness.’
Some of my long term became my business besties and I can’t be more than proud and happier about it!
My business besties have become some of my best friends!
This is awesome! Such a great reminder that we NEED cheerleaders and accountability partners that are also in business, reaching for BIG goals! My family and friends are super supportive, but they just don’t understand most of the time!
I agree 100% Community is SO important in business and in life.
I agree! I have a couple of biz besties and it has made a huge difference in my business 🙂
Thanks for all the tips ??♀️. I have been on a hunt for a biz bestie for a while – this list will def make weeding out the ones that don’t fit w me easier
I couldn’t agree more! We need that kind of accountability, honesty, and support!
Excellent ideas! I have found I need business besties SO MUCH.
Great ideas! Finding people who relate to us is so important to keep us from burning out from loneliness!
I really need some business besties to work together. The more minds, the more ideas… I like that.
What a novel idea. I haven’t heard of the concept, but, it is definitely something I would like to learn more about. Thanks for explaining.
I was just thinking about this yesterday. I really need a group of friends who are in the same stage as I am and the same mindset business wise.
I recently joined a group that encourages business besties. I hope to get a lot and also leanr a lot!
I was thinking about this the other day… How I wish I had a business bestie for my new adventure of being a Etsy Shop Owner ‘HappyByEloise’! It’s more work than I thought to become noticed/seen/sell on Etsy, i could use some help! I love the idea of it and will certainly see this through. Looks like a lot of benefits ; )
It’s not a concept I’d heard of like this before but I’m familiar with networking as a business tool. As with a lot of things in life, having someone to bounce ideas off and share information with is an asset which is often overlooked.
I’ve never heard of a business bestie but it makes sense lol. After all, we have besties and members of our tribe that keep us in check emotionally or business wise.
Business besties are really the best. I got an accountability buddy a while ago, but now she’s one of my closest friends.