One of the toughest things when you work from home or do business online, is doing this alone. Unlike office situations where you have interactions with other workers, schedule meetings and camaraderie after work, you’re pretty much alone when you work out of your home. Maybe this is why one of the fastest growing websites is Meetup.com. Basically it’s a site that allows you to meet with people in your area who share similar interests.

Over the years I’ve been reading the blog of John Chow and one of the things he does, is organize a meeting every weekend with fellow bloggers and entrepreneurs. I never really understood the goal behind these meetings, since I could not find real value. That was until I started to be part of one, locally here in Hamilton.  A friend of mine who’s also involved in ecommerce and making money online suggested that we (a knew a couple other people) meet for coffee a few weeks ago. It was nice meeting with people who not only shared a common interest with me, they were at different stages in building their identity online. So there was the potential to learn about the industry from guys who were a bit more advanced than me and it also allowed me to share pointers with people who were a bit below me as far as understanding the online marketplace.

It had been a couple weeks since our last meet-up so we decided to meet at our home on Saturday night. What a great meeting. I finally know why John Chow and company do this on a weekly basis. The biggest revelations of the night as far as my personal situation is concerned were:

- I don’t seem to have true focus on the big picture

- I’m not “testing” as I should. You won’t believe how little changes on a website can affect conversions.

- I’m not asking my website visitors what areas they need help in. Without knowing the problem my visitors face, I can’t provide a true solution

- I learned that it’s easier to promote or market someone else product, than it is when it comes to your own.

- building a “true” business is more profitable than chasing the affiliate buck

There were other things that I do and don’t do that can help grow my business, but without having these guys over and being part of this meeting I’m not sure these things would ever be clear to me. I had other people look deep into my business and share their thoughts on what I was doing.

I encourage you to create your own group and start a monthly meeting to start off with. It can be a simple “let’s meet for coffee” kinda deal, but get out there and network with others in your line of business or career. It will give you the opportunity to share thoughts with people with similar interests, brainstorm ideas, look at the marketplace, discuss trends and how it can affect your business and most of all it will give you the opportunity to get away from the computer and your office to spend time with people.

Our meeting on Saturday also opened the door for a partnership for me that can result in bigger and better things for me in 2010.

BTW, if you ever attend one of these meetings it’s important to participate, but try not to reveal everything about your business until you’ve formed true relationships with others. There’s the risk that they may copy or make a move on your ideas before you even have a chance to roll with it.

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