Ron Busby, President & CEO, U.S. Black Chamber Inc.:
We see hundreds of businesses delivering proposals, responding to RFPs and RFQs and RFIs, requests for proposals, requests for information, requests for quotes, and doing all the right things, making sure the numbers are right, making sure that every I is dotted, and every T is crossed. Praying over it, cutting out as much of the profit as possible, and still not getting that opportunity. And it’s not because they weren’t intelligent or didn’t have the acumen or didn’t have a good or well-written proposal. It’s because they didn’t have a relationship. And so, for many small business owners — women, minority, veterans as well, they just don’t have someone in the room representing them. And so, as a chamber of commerce, it’s our role to make sure that we’re representing the business members that we have, and when opportunities do present themselves, we have to stand in the gap and say, ‘Yep. I have a woman-owned business that can do that. Give this African American small business the opportunity.’

Lindsey Braciale, Founder & CEO, Advocations:
I think another thing that’s really important to think about is being really intentional about the groups you want to be involved in. And then actually be involved. Oftentimes, you get more by giving than you do sometimes by just saying, ‘what have you done for me lately?,’ is often the mentality that you get into. And so I think about all the organizations that I’ve been involved with over the years. And the ones that I’ve been more active and relevant in, I think I’ve actually gotten more out of, even if it wasn’t more sales or business.

Bob Marshall, Wells Fargo Small Business Banking:
I’m finding more that small business owners have an advisory panel. The group of people, either it’s they know personally or they’ve gotten to know based on their experience within the business that they own, that they trust. That they really focus on and say, ‘Ok, this is what I’m trying to do. This is where I’m trying to grow. This is how I’m trying to run the business, what do y’all think?’

Braciale:
Surrounding yourself with ‘yes’ people and cheerleaders, that happens very naturally, and in my business, it happens all the time. But the biggest and the greatest mentors that I have are the ones that say, ‘what?’ or ‘wait, what?’, that’s the best one where they allow me to continue to explain why I had this thought process. So, they don’t tell you what to do, but at the end of the day, they challenge kind of your thinking so you can see both sides of the fence.

Busby:
I think the other thing is to surround yourself with other business owners. Business owners that have been in business maybe a little bit longer than you, not necessarily in the same industry, but things that you can learn from them, gain experiences from them, talk to them as you’re going through the journey, so that you don’t trip over some of the same minefields. But also, just so that you know that hey look, someone has done this before. I’m going to be ok. Because a lot of time you need a pat on the back to say, ‘it’s going to be ok’.

Sean Mabey, Wells Fargo Small Business Banking:
When you talk to the person who is doing it, do you want to live the life and do the things that person’s doing. You could have the best idea. It could be an idea the market wants, and maybe even the market will pay for. But to be successful, if I then talk to Bob who is doing something similar, and I look and I’m like ‘I don’t want to do what Bob’s doing, I can’t do what Bob’s doing. I don’t want to get up every day thinking about that.’ Then, you might make a different choice.

Busby:
I think the other thing that we have to not lose focus on, 95% of small businesses are never going to do business with the government or corporate America. But they can do business with one another. So, b-to-b opportunities are huge, and b-to-c, b-to-customers, b-to-consumers. And so, I don’t want us all to think gosh, I have to have a contract with the federal government or a state or local community municipality, or I have to be doing business with Wells Fargo or some Fortune 100, when the fact is, most small businesses are going to do business with other small businesses.

Marshall:
I think partnership and collaboration have now become part of the business vernacular, where I think, for a time, everybody was your competitor. Everybody was your enemy. We’re competing against the same customers. That’s not necessarily the case, and you’re starting to see it now where entrepreneurs really understand now that I can survive, but can I thrive, and which one do I want?