Any of you who know me personally will have heard me talking about a fabulous business group that I belong to called Women in Business N8. Around a year ago, one of our members (Henri Garden of Little Face Photos) approached a few women that she knew to get together occasionally and share ideas for growing our businesses successfully.

We now have a membership of 11 fabulous women, all of whom have very different business but face similar common issues – such as client generation, wading our way through the the minefield that is social media, developing our marketing, PR etc. Some of us have even hooked up to run joint?enterprises. Amongst?other projects,?myself and Sam Perkins of Happy Eaters?now run?The Weight Escape?a successful local weight loss group for people who are fed up of faddy diets that don’t work,?and Katy Made Cakes who teamed up recently with the lovely Lou at?GlamGiving.com to provide the most beautiful cupcakes for a Kiehls charity fashion event – you can see more at?http://www.katymadecakes.co.uk/index.php/498/). Many of us are also using the services of Ros at?http://www.mytaxuk.com/ to take the stress out of our finances. We all work alone at what we do, but now we’ve established this group we’ve got company and really feel we’re on to a winning, and very sociable formula for taking our one-man-band businesses to a new level.

The even better thing about it is that we are backed up by research (validating our coffee drinking and chatting together even further). Studies show that people are far more likely to be successful at whatever we are working towards if they enlist the support of others.?Whether?it is telling someone else about a personal goal that we are working towards, or brainstorming for business ideas amongst colleagues, a collective effort is always more successful than if we approach things entirely by ourselves.

Part of this is about accountability. By working with others our goals often become much more set in stone than if we make a half-hearted promise to ourselves. The mere action of having to report back on how we are doing ultimately means that we will be taking more action to?accomplish?it.

As you think about it now, how could you create a success group whatever your aim might be. If your goal is losing weight or another health or exercise goal, why not tell someone what you hope to achieve, how much you will achieve and by when you will achieve?it. If it is to do with an interest or something work related, try to find some like-minded people who are doing a similar thing. We often find in our WIBS?business group that we have inspiring ideas for each other as well as for ourselves. Look around you and see what you could create. You might just be surprised where that support could come from.

I’d be really?interested?to hear how you get one or if you have other experiences of creating support networks? Do drop me a line to tell me all about it.