Coming from an IT background, networking meant connecting multiple computers (or other devices) so they could communicate with each other and share resources. Although networks are ubiquitous today, they were rare when I first started in IT (showing my age a bit....
Back in the day, let’s say an office had 2 computers, with a printer connected to one of them. If someone wanted to print a file from the computer without the printer, they had 4 options:
1)Copy the file to a floppy disk, take it to the first computer, then print from there.
2)Unplug the printer from the first computer and connect it to the 2nd computer.
3)Buy a second printer.
4)Setup a network to connect the 2 computers and share the printer between them.
Obviously, networking creates more efficiency and allows resources to be shared more easily.
In a previous post, I talked about community. While community consists of the people working together, networking involves matching those people with others in the community to work with. Much the same way computer networking connect devices and lets them share resources, business networking connects people and helps them to collaborate and share their knowledge and resources.
I wanted to take this a step further with Life in Local and help business share their customers with other local businesses. Local businesses can easily work with each other for up-selling and cross-selling opportunities. This creates WIN-WIN-WIN scenarios: businesses get more revenue, their network partners get new customers, and the customers get exposed to new services and products they might not otherwise know about.
