Friendships

Us human beings are programmed to be social animals, despite many people happily existing in their own little bubble — but is being alone really good for us?

The Lead Generation Group Ltd we have noticed that the first month of Autunm is Oddfellows Friendship Month and this runs from the 1st to 30th September every year, and it stems from 1810 when Oddfellows was established and it was to highlight how important friendship and social connections are in enabling us to lead a fulfilling life.

We all like to think we make enough time for our friends and family, but when you are running a business it's often easy to forget to factor in time for ourselves and our support network — friends are especially important because we all know the old adage: "You can choose your friends but you can't choose your family. . .!"

How many of us have used networking events and business groups to foster business contacts and grow our enterprises, but have subsequently ended up forging great friendships with our fellow entrepreneurs?

At The Lead Generation Group Ltd we love to network! We know how important it is to maintain our presence in the market and how it is a great tool for building both business and personal relationships; we work on behalf of ourselves (obviously!) but equally we often find we can make introductions for our clients as well and those kind of connections often result in friends for life.

It can be lonely when you are dedicated to building your business and, for many, a network of business connections is vital, not only for your business, but for your own well-being and mental health.

Friends are the people that make us laugh, make us cry, tell us straight when we need telling without being offended, share the burdens of life with us, are our confidantes and are often the people who are closer to us than even family members.

Oddfellows Friendship Month is a celebration of all such friendships and if you want to share in these celebrations you can go to their website: https://www.oddfellows.co.uk/about/friendship-month/

They encourage people to share their experiences, and this is especially important in the business world, more so than ever if people are struggling in this present economic climate or just feeling uncertain about taking the giant step they have already taken to actually run their own business.

Next time, like all of us at The LG Group, when you are attending a network event, keep an eye out for someone who may appear to be struggling, or hanging back or just simply stood on their own. Go out of your way to introduce yourself because you never know where that simple: "Hello, my name is. . . . " might lead.

You can't put a price on friendship: some people have a wide circle of friends whilst others have a limited pool of people they choose to call "friend." However big or small your friendship pool is, you known that those are the support network that often keep you propped up, buoyed up and keep you forging on ahead with your dreams.