Relocating to a new city; advice for a newbie

[AndrewKent]

I'm a new addition to the fastlane forum and I'm currently formulating and executing my plans the future. Among those plans is a move to a new city (Austin, TX). I have obligations I'm committed to in my current city until the end of summer, so I am moving in September, which gives me a couple of months to plan and keep the balls rolling on my business project.

Does anyone have any tips on relocating to a new city with no real social support network? I was definitely inspired by MJ's story of moving to Phoenix because he hated winter and got depressed with the cold, shitty winters of the Midwest (same as me!). When I left for college, straight out of high school, I relocated to a new city with virtually no personal social contacts, so I'm not worried (really excited!) but I guess I would like to hear others' stories as to how it helped/hurt them and what lessons they gleaned from their experience. What is starting over with a clean (?) slate like? How can you leverage the move to grow a business? What are some of the drawbacks, if any? What was unexpected (good and bad)?

Anything else you'd like to ramble about is certainly welcome!

 

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[swimkid]

Do you have hobbies or interests? Join groups or clubs or the gym or anything where there's people you can talk to. Otherwise you'll just sit in your house all day by yourself. Force yourself to talk to people even if it seems kind of corny. Invite your neighbors over for a bbq. Bascially at first you just need to meet people. Meeting people is invaluable, you never know who knows somebody who knows somebody! Be nice to everyone!


For example, several years ago I got a job as a front desk receptionist at a gym so I could feed myself while trying to startup a direct marketing business. It was an epic failure, and I made lots of mistakes and ended up broke and practically homeless... but not the point. I was friends with one of the housekeeping ladies, who barely spoke english, and I barely spoke spanish, but we would chat whenever things were slow. Turns out her best friend's husband was a career counselor at a local community college, so out of desperation I sent him my resume. A few months later, I got a call from a guy asking me if I wanted a job running the North American operations of an international electrochemical company. I went from a failing business that was bleeding me dry, making $9/hr part time at a dead end job, to traveling around the world for business overnight. Not exactly making millions, or fastlane or anything, but basically my life completely turned around because I was nice to the janitor!

Sometimes your next level of success comes from the most unexpected of places!

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Does anyone have any tips on relocating to a new city with no real social support network?

Meetup groups. (Meetup.com)
Craigslist (Activities section -- I found a softball team via Craigslist.)
Forums (here, others)
Church
Other social activities that blend with your interests.
Volunteer.

Moving to a new city with no social networks is really exciting!! It's like wiping the slate clean and starting fresh with a new outlook.

Also, being in a new city and having to forge new friends is a great growing experience as it might force you out of your comfort zone -- it also frees up a lot of time ... when I first moved to Phx, I had no distractions and could put 100% time into my business. (It took a while before I had friends that would say "lets go drinking!" or "lets party!"