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Networking. I love it. For years it has been my battlecry as I have taken the first steps towards establishing myself and my business in another new location. I would hate to make out that my husband has dragged little old subservient me round the world as he chases his own career in the international oil industry, but I guess that is sort of what happened. Only no-one could ever call me subservient. In our household we have one trouser-leg each. But back to networking. As I have had to restart my career in four different countries in the last decade I have faced more than my fair share of challenges. But challenges are, as they say, just opportunities in disguise. After a few weeks living out of packing cases I have embarked on making new contacts turn into clients and along the way have discovered many things.

For one. Women's coffee or lunch groups are useless in the long term, but worthwhile at the start. I could advertise in their magazine or noticeboard, usually for free, and often write articles too. While I may have no interest in their quilting or tapestry groups, I did have an interest in their adolescent daughters who could babysit while I sat at my computer and wrote those articles and adverts.

Another thing I learned is that I never got away without a bout of butterflies at the first meeting of a professional or social group. I always stood there like a wallflower to start with and vowed I had wasted my time. Then, like magic someone braver than I, usually wearing a 'hello my name is' sticker, would come up and get me started on the introductions. After an hour I would be buzzing with adrenalin and completing a membership form.

Finally, I realised that if there was no special interest group around that served my own interests then I would start my own. Soon the new members became my clients and my friends.

Networking is vital for business. One woman I know has started carrying a networking book around with her in which she stores cards from other networkers with the express purpose of passing them on and widening more nets than her own. At a recent press conference I got chatting to a man and we soon found ourselves swapping business cards.

'This is for networking,' he said. On his card he had printed his photograph. 'Otherwise you would never remember who I was, would you?' he continued. I turned over the card and read several quotations and thoughts that were important to him such as 'Thinking is the process of asking questions.' I certainly will not forget him in a hurry.

Networking is about more than exchanging business cards and making friends or clients, it is about the free exchange of information, skill sharing and brainstorming that self-employed homeworkers like myself cannot hope to find elsewhere.

Sadly, things can get out of hand as I am now finding to my cost. Caught up in the euphoria of the unsurpassable synchronicity that I feel on establishing new relationships and feeling that new liaisons are filled with promise, I am wont to let my tongue run away with me. On a sea of enthusiasm and inspiration I make too many promises and share more information than I would like. Now and again I realise that I have run before I should have walked and have given away my best secrets only to find them taken up by someone else.