Over the weekend I attended a birthday party for one of my son’s daycare friends. The party was held at one of those inflatable balloon bouncing party places. Because the children had activities to do like climbing a giant inflated slide, jumping and bouncing, I had some time to just observe the behavior of 4 year olds in action.

As soon as the children were released into the play area they began to form up into small groups of two or three to explore. My son stayed very close to one little girl from his daycare together they went from one attraction to another. They were jumping on each inflatable area, exploring it, poking around and generally getting the most out of the party atmosphere. Alone either one might have been too shy to really enjoy themselves. But together they were unstoppable.

What I realize is that at some point very early in our lives as humans we feel the need to connect with others. We feel more confident when working in groups. And we generally are able to explore the space more easily and have more fun when we’re with friends. It reminded me of how each of us as entrepreneurs and small-business owners need to connect with other small business owners and entrepreneurs in order to help us fully explore our spaces.

I think now is such a great time to be an entrepreneur with all of the social media we have at our disposal. We're very lucky to be able to use things like Twitter, Facebook, blogging, and other social media to connect to each other despite the vast distances that separate us.

Here’s another example; in order to find a logo for my start-up bookkeeping company I'm hosting a design contest on 99designs.com. It's is a great website that allows you to hold design competitions for a small hosing fee (my contest). And I have designers from all over the world competing to create a new logo for Aspirin Bookkeeping. 10 or 20 years ago a small start-up would not have this type of resource and so the Internet and other social media platforms have really leveled the playing field.

I'd love to hear how you feel about the use of social media and the Internet as business tools. So tell me what you think in the comment space below.

Sincerely, Drew Smith