Learning Business

Two months have gone by since I last posted.

I have afforded quite a bit of time to Post A Posy over the past month or so. Since my daylight hours are spent in the office, my nights filled with personal appointments, and my weekends are spent with flowers and in church, I have hardly had the time to work on the other projects.

Although that sounds like a bad thing, I realised that Post A Posy has given me opportunities to have a taste of what it feels like to do business, allowing me to be better prepared for bigger endeavours to come.

I know two months isn’t much, but in these two months, I have done some things I have never done before and learnt a lot from them. One was fulfilling a single order of 20 flower cones – the biggest order I have to date. Another was to sell flowers at a market, which turned out to be a real test of my flower wrapping skills.

Just last week, R and I attended a networking session. It wasn’t any ordinary networking session – it was a networking sessions for introverts (yes, I’m an introvert, if you don’t already know that). It was curiosity on my part to agree to attend the session because I wanted to see what a networking session for introverts looked like.

Networking sessions are known to be loud, messy events where everyone is talking to everyone. It’s easy to get lost and as an introvert, I don’t naturally gravitate towards such events. In my profession as a writer (sometimes journo or editor), I attend press conferences, product launches, and the occasional party. At these events, I’m constantly meeting people and making new acquaintances – all part and parcel of the job and I’m okay with it, in large part because they’re unavoidable and I have learnt how to handle them.

But to voluntarily attend an event that is known to be loud (and energy-zapping for introverts)? No, I really rather not. Except that this time, it’s BY introverts FOR introverts.

Err. Will anyone even be talking?

Haha. Ok, I kid. There’s a difference between introversion and shyness!

So, I was curious and decided to attend it together with R.

And it was pretty cool.

Mervin, the organiser of the networking session, was warm and welcoming. We met some really interesting individuals, and all in all, it was a positive experience. People were happy to get to know one another, but no one was overly-enthusiastic or hyper-excited or zipping around trying to get to know everyone. The energy in the room was palpable but not threatening.

At the same time, I have been reading The Introvert Entrepreneur by Beth Buelow, and in one chapter, she covers networking and provides helpful tips and suggestions on how introverts can make use of our strengths to excel in networking.

I suppose, I’m on my way to business networking?