Entrepreneur and Table of Fabulousness founder Cindy Luken. Photo: Supplied
Women are leading a collaborative, more intimate approach to business networking that is delivering real results for a plethora of early stage ventures.
Table of Fabulousness, Heads over Heels and Little Black Dress Group are just some of the emerging business networks shunning traditional networking in favour of this new approach.
Table of Fabulousness
The dynamic Cindy Luken started Table of Fabulousness last August. It's a monthly lunch and networking forum for a group of 20 female entrepreneurs, moulded on the corporate boardroom lunch model.
Luken is the founder of successful cookie company Luken & May, a business she grew and then sold in 2003 to brand management business Stuart Alexander. It has since been onsold. More recently, she has been building lukbeautiful, which develops make-up from food ingredients.
Luken planted the seeds of Table of Fabulousness while struggling with the isolation of developing her new venture. Through her start-up blog, she put feelers out to gauge interest in a regular lunch networking meeting where female entrepreneurs could discuss their challenges.
“Within no time I had 10 people who wanted to come to my place for lunch to meet like-minded people,” she says.
Guests don't give a formal presentation at the gatherings, but each person has 15 minutes to talk about their business.
The real point of difference between this type of networking and more standard networking events that involve a wine, the swapping of business cards and a self-serving pitch to other attendees is that networking continues after the lunch has ended.
“People continue their discussions after the lunch in person or online; it's a really new way of doing business and so different to when I was first in business for myself 10 years ago,” Luken says.
Another difference is the focus on developing tangible outcomes to problems discussed around the table. An example is the database of 1000 journalist contacts the group has created to help build public awareness of members' businesses.
One of the founding members is Sonja Firth, founder of Verve HR. Firth says she derives significant value from the meetings, including two new client recommendations.
Firth has been able to connect with veteran CEO Jane McKellar, a former managing director of Elizabeth Arden who has also held senior positions with Microsoft and ninemsn.
“She spent an hour-and-a-half with me, giving amazing advice I would have paid a business coach hundreds of dollars for,” says Firth.
For instance, Firth's business went through a growth phase late last year, without having the resources to manage the increased workload. Her conundrum was that she could not justify putting on additional staff without extra business, but when she won new clients she didn't have enough staff to meet their needs.
“Jane's advice was to put in place a webinar training program for new staff. Although I can't pay them for this training, people who are serious about the job will attend the training and those who attend will be the first people I look to put on when I need staff,” she explains.
Little Black Dress Group
A similar networking outfit is the Little Black Dress Group. Members pay a fee to gain access to high quality connections and business intelligence through the group. There are two levels of fees: diamond membership costs $1495 and platinum membership is $4995.
Sara Lucas, a founding member of the group, says groups like this need a number of factors to succeed.
“Group members have to be open minded and willing to take advice and also act on it. It's also important it's a non-commercial environment; it's difficult to make it work when there are vested interests. You also need a good mix of highly skilled people. And chemistry between group members is the X factor that makes groups work”.
Heads over Heels
A third group, Heads over Heels, works on a slightly different model. This group focuses on a portfolio of female-owned businesses. The founders draw on the knowledge and connections of members, who are seasoned entrepreneurs, advisors from a range of disciplines and corporate leaders.
Co-founder Sue Klose says the entrepreneurs seek general counsel from members and also specific advice, such as input into a public relations strategy. Most importantly, the members agree to spark introductions within their own personal networks to assist with a range of business issues. Heads over Heels is looking to bring between six and 10 new businesses into the group this year.
Klose says group members become part of the network largely for altruistic reasons.
“Our members want to see business owners get ahead. The entrepreneurial space in Australia has advanced significantly, but we're not San Francisco," she says.
"Much more can be done to nurture innovation and provide access to capital and Heads over Heels and other similar groups are an important part of this process.”
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