Oh, what a web they weave!

Adrienne Cregar Jandler, a web developer, met Kathy Bowman Atkins, a business strategist, through Business Women of the Triad, about five years ago, and now they're mutual clients.

Atkins met Tamara McLendon, who was launching her own public relations business, through the Greensboro/Winston-Salem chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners. McLendon, on Atkins' referral, now provides PR services to Greensboro-based Atlantic Webworks, Jandler's company.

Meanwhile, mutual relationships have been made with AllPoints Research, a Winston-Salem company that does marketing studies that might be of value to each of them. And with each connection, the network makes the web ever more robust.

“I find women in leagues really work hard to refer folks in their group that they believe are good resources” says Atkins, President of The Lattitude Group, Inc., a Greensboro-based business coaching firm.

This “sphere of influence,” as Atkins refers to it, “is the power of networking—and women are embracing it in building relationships and helping each other grow their businesses.”

“Men have been doing it forever,” says Sandra Yancey, the founder and CEO of eWomenNetwork, a network with 15,000 members and 90 chapters nationally.

But women are catching up. Experts say women, who are starting businesses at a much faster rate than men, are leveraging the power of networking. And they are adding some special touches less typical of men.

"We don't have to imitate men. Men are facts, figures, and the bottom line—report talk," Yancey says. “Women are more the rapport talk.”

Yancey, a networking expert who teaches women how to create relationships to accelerate their businesses, has also authored her first book, “Relationship Networking,” which came out in May. Yancey speaks of women and networking with the enthusiasm of a motivational speaker. Her excitement is evident as she describes how networking can help women's businesses and careers explode. “Success is access, and access is based on realtionships,” she says.

Quality counts

Yancey stresses quality versus quantity when networking.

"Real business is the result of great connections, not a bunch of contracts," Yancey says. While passing out stacks of business cards is routine, Yancey believes the real payback comes from one-on-one relationships, something she believes women are well suited for.

The difference between the way women network compared to men is the nurturing side of women, Yancey says. “When you're talking to a woman, you're talking to everyone in her circle also,” she says. “There is a philosophy of giving in networking, which lends itself to the nurturing side of women,” Yancey says.

And Jandler, Atkins, and McLendon have demonstrated this—expanding their web while referring business back to each other. The web also includes Sherrie Aycock and Tara Olson of AllPoints Research in Winston-Salem, a client of Atkins.  Atkins says these deep, enduring relationships that women carve out of the business world is characteristic of their networking strategy, which leads to referrals within the web of business relationships.

This “what can I do for you” mentality, also at work in male business circles, is a major player in the way female networking webs work, these women say. “ Women are also way more loyal,” Yancey says.

“Women are used to being nurturers and they're very supportive, in general, of the people that they care about, and that carriers over to business as well,” Jandler says. For women starting their own businesses, they tend to lean heavily on groups for referrals and support, she says. Women have a vested interest in people that they recognize as good at what they do within their group.

“I think the norm of reciprocity is most critical when it comes to networking,” says Monica Forret, a professor at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa.

Judy Boggs, who started Home Loving Senior Care, Inc., in 2002, came to NAWBO to gain more of an education and to make contacts—something she knew would help her grow her new business. To her, women are more open and more eager to make one-on-one contact. These relationships of Boggs would ultimately help her through one of the toughest times of her life and her business. In her first year of business, Boggs' father died suddenly, and her mother became ill and needed care for  several months. And her oldest son was shot and killed. “My first year of business was a world of tribulation,” Boggs says. She said that relationships from NAWBO helped her get through the hard times. “They were so strong for me; they knew I was growing,” she says. “It was a whole host of people; it's hard to single out just one.”

“Women are natural givers,” Yancey says. She's not surprised when she hears stories like these. “Once women witness this personally, they are not afraid to spread the word,” Yancey says. “Women are looking for someone who has integrity and is good at what they do,” Jandler says.

Facts about women in business

In North Carolina, nearly half of all privately held businesses are majority women-owned or 50 percent women-owned as of 2004, based on a Center for Women's Business Research study using the Bureau of the Census data.

Between 1997 and 2004, the center estimates that the number of 50 percent or more women-owned firms has grown by 20.3 percent, helping North Carolina rank fifth in the nation.