I was recently asked what I thought a business owner needed to grow their business. Without thought I answered ‘networking and surrounding themselves with the right people.’ I run a networking business after all, so the answer was simple.
That evening the question came back to me and it made me think… ‘How have I managed to grow my business and social media group?’
I remembered that in the beginning it was difficult and I tried implementing all sorts of different tools, but there was one thing that stood out… community.
Building a community of like minded people whether they are customers or fellow business owners is imperative to the success of our businesses. The sooner we realise that we can’t build a business on our own, the quicker our businesses will start to grow.
Along the way I started to recognise that there were other important tools I needed to use in order for my business to become a success. Let me share some of them with you now.
Community
Finding your community is so important. These are the people who will support you when you have questions and issues within your business, share knowledge and advice and celebrate your wins with you.
But where do you find these people? I would suggest trying different networking groups, shared work spaces and generally anywhere business owners hang out.
Within these groups you’ll find what I like to call, your ‘business besties.’ These are the people who will cheer you on, keep you accountable and share your business with others when you’re not in the room.
Boundaries
This is a hard one, especially if you’re a people pleaser like myself. I had to learn the lesson of setting boundaries the hard way.
I used to own a business, where I helped new business owners to create content for their businesses. I worked from 7am to 11pm, 7 days a week. People would message me at 11pm, asking if I could help them with their social media content, and then often not pay me. But the problem was me… I didn’t know how to say ‘No.’
At the time I was also getting trolled online. I didn’t have a strong community of followers who would call people out or message me to check if I was ok.
I ended up closing my business over night. I found a community of amazing women and had to start rebuilding my business again.
This time boundaries are in place and are easier to keep as I know my community will support me.
Values
Work out what is important to you! Not everyone else. It maybe loyalty, family, trust, flexibility or kindness. Identify the things that are important to you and your business.
Then surround yourself with people who have similar values. This is your community.
Photo: RHS Photography
Showing Up
Showing up can be difficult, especially on those days where you are filled with self doubt.
My advice would be to show up for that one person who needs to hear your message that day. You never know who is watching and who needs your help.
Having a supportive community will help you with this. Ask them to watch your live, comment on your new post or ask a specific question. They will also hold you accountable to showing up.
Becoming a Leader
I often call myself ‘the reluctant leader,’ because the thought of having the responsibility to guide a group can be scary.
But I believe it is something that we must all do, whatever industry we are in.
We have to lead our industry, set the standards and follow any policies or practices that need to be in place.
Part of this role may also be to call out any bad behaviour, which I have found a lot easier to do having a supportive community behind me.
Members of your community may not always get on and this may cause issues. These situations need to be addressed as a leader, and in a way that doesn’t get you involved.
When running a larger community it is also inevitable that there will be people in the group that won’t share your groups values. This may include people who lie, steal or do business unethically.
Calling these people out can be difficult for many reasons as people will often fear they won’t be believed or calling it out will back fire and make them look bad and possibly damage their business.
However, you don’t have to use peoples names. Just mentioning behaviours for people to look out for, or recommending procedures to put in place can really help others.
Once again having a good community will help you to protect others.
My Group
To finish up I just want to tell you about my Facebook group: Celebrating Women in Business South Wales. The group was started in May 2022. From then until January 2025 I managed to grow the group to approximately 200 members.
I would let anyone join the group and I really struggled to get my audience to engage.
So I decided I needed to change things up a bit. Before anyone could join the group they had to agree to being a female business owner and living in South Wales. This meant I had to turn many people away.
But what this did do, was get the right people in the group. People who wanted to engage with other like minded female business owners.
Over the following year my group grew by approximately 800 members and in January 2026 I now had over 1000 female business owners in the group.
I put this growth down to community, setting boundaries, discovering and sharing my values, showing up even when I didn’t feel like it and becoming a leader.
Thank you for reading and I hope that these tools also help you to grow your business.
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