If you’re a service, probably yes.
Generally the Internet is a great place to do business. You get clients from all over the world. It’s an even greater resource to get help for your own business. Your perfect coach may be located thousands of miles away.
So far so good … until you decide to get involved with local, face-to-face marketing. At that point, you have local limitations, norms and opportunities. In my experience, you need to connect with local coaches and mentors if you want to promote yourself in your hometown. They know the customs and the informal rules. More important, they know what’s realistic.
For example, when I moved to Seattle, I anticipated giving lots of talks. I love to speak (I’m a bit of a ham, in fact) and get rave reviews as a speaker. But speaking opportunities seemed limited. Seattle-ites just don’t want to go to classes and attend meetings to learn things. One business coach scoffed: “It’s all in your mind.” My friend in Southern California was surprised; he was turning down speaking invitations all the time.
But I dd some reality checking. Two venues closed last year: DiscoverU, our answer to Learning Annex, and a monthly breakfast meeting for women business owners, held at a local community college. I also talked to someone who moved to the Pacific Northwest after ten years in the Midwest. She was an accomplished speaker with a stellar track record. Yet she agreed with me. “It’s different up here.”
Networking groups differ. A group that’s dynamic, lively and productive in Chicago may be a dud in Dallas, or vice versa.
Norms of groups vary. Seattle tends to be geo-centric. An event’s location makes a huge difference and psychological distance can be far greater than actual miles. I tend to skip events in Bellevue – the East Side – even though realistically it’s just a 20-minute ride on a nice air conditioned commuter bus with plush seats. My friend attends a group in the midwest that’s a similar distance but “everybody carpools,” she says. Here few people do; that’s probably because we have a lot of people who don’t have cars and always need rides.
What’s been your experience with the effects of geography on business? If you live in Seattle, do you have different perceptions?