Queensland :: Thinking Home Business | Practical Tips For People Who Work From Home

Networking breakfast at the beach and an interview with a champion networker

Just a week ago today I had a reminder that, while it’s great to connect with colleagues and customers globally, via the Web, it’s also very healthy for business to go to live events.

Just before Christmas, at a local Chamber of Commerce function, I met up with a good friend, although lately we have not been frequently in the same place, local businesswoman, coach and superb networker, Kym Kranen, I learned that Kym was running some networking breakfasts in the local region.

I attended one of the breakfasts last week and was very glad I had done so. Good conversation, some excellent business ideas, dynamic people.

Actually, a good touch with these events is that if you don’t want a breakfast as such you can just have a coffee or tea – or water! And there is no admission charge, so for people working from home and on a very tight budget, “can’t afford it” is not a viable excuse for staying away.

It was also good to be able to get a few minutes of Kym’s time and speak with her about what she is doing with business networking in the region and how this can help, especially but not exclusively, people with businesses from home – and on the latter topic she shared some interesting statistics.

Here is the video of the chat we had.

You can find out more about what Kym does and make contact, via her site Solutions4Success.

Do you have a story to share – good or “cautionary” – about the value of attending local networking events?

Early in April I wrote about some of the things that give me joy in my business, mentioning that it was a way of kick-starting a series of interview-based posts on the topic “What Gives You Joy in Your Business?”.

This post, the first in that series, incorporates a video interview with Tim Bamford, professional photographer and portrait maestro.

Some time ago my partner Suzie Cheel and I were in need of some professional photographs and were fortunate to be able to connect with Tim, founder of Portrait House in Burleigh Cove on the Gold Coast, Australia, about a half hour drive from where we live and work.

Suzie and I were both very happy with the results, which I’m confident Tim did not find surprising, given the care he takes and his combination of high level technical expertise, artistic sensibility and passion for what he does.

Also, as Tim has some wonderful portraits on display in his studio, we could get a sense of his dedication to photographing people in various settings, indoors and outdoors (the latter presumably having some special challenges with managing light, wind and so on).

One thing in particular we loved about the process was that Tim took the time to sit us down and explain his approach and what he wants to achieve before getting us anywhere near the front of a camera. And then he took more time, at a session a week after the shoot, to set us down and take us through all the shots – on a big screen so we could get a really good view – and cull out the ones we liked best.

We now have a great selection of pictures to use for our business. And as the collection is archived, we have the option of getting others done if we wished, say in a large format to hang on a wall, at a future date.

Tim’s quiet enthusiasm and love for what he does is evident in everything he says and the joyful meticulousness of how he goes about the process of making the portraits. The downstairs level of his spacious two-storey house is fitted out beautifully with office and studio spaces and would surely be the envy of any work from/at home portrait photographer. In short, Tim gives a very good impression of someone who has their act well and truly together and is thus able to focus intently on delivering a great product and service.

Although in my experience professional photographers are loathe to have amateurs like me point cameras at them, Tim graciously acceded to my request for the short video interview you see here.