Networking: a big issue for some expat entrepreneurs

Some expatriate entrepreneurs (and in particular so-called "solopreneurs") experience a double challenge in the area of networking. They feel isolated working from home, without any support from colleagues and teams, and they find it difficult to network locally because they are not fluent enough in the local language.

Another aspect of this problem is that the situation of expatriation often works like a magnifying glass for situations who would barely be considered as problems at home, or who would be approached differently. For example, if you move to another town within your own country, you might be thrilled at the idea of meeting new people and take active steps towards this purpose, instead of feeling overwhelmed and staying at home watching TV because you don't know anybody. Do you remember the Peanuts cartoons and the little dog lying on the roof of his kennel, with his paws above his head, thinking "Nobody loves me"?

In the wave of the new social networking solutions that are now developed on the basis of Internet, a new system appeared a bit more than a year ago: the Meetup meetings. You can go to the website, enter your country and town, and get a list of the Meetups that already exist in your area. They are quite often in English, or bilingual, and focused mainly on expats, or with a high percentage of them. If there are not many Meetups to choose from yet, you'll get a lost of all the possible Meetups by subjects, and quite often several local people have already signed up in order to be informed once a group is created.

Therefore, if you are a lonely expat and/or entrepreneur, just take the initiative and create your own Meetup. It costs, according to the payment plan you choose, something between 150 and 200 US$/year, but it is certainly worth every cent.

You are invited to post comments about this article directly on the blog. You can also use the "comment" function to put some information about your local Meetups, or even the ones you created after having read this article!