Finding Your Complement

Julia was in a huff. She came into our networking meeting in the middle of my 30-second introduction and didn't like what she was hearing. I was sharing about how I did web design and some Internet marketing.

After I had finished, she stomped to the front of the group and basically said, "I am the web designer in this group, and I don't want anybody else talking about doing web design." It was pretty tense. So she, another woman who does web design, and I talked about ways to make things work out for the best for all of us. I focused on marketing, the other was search engine marketing, and Julia was the web designer.

I agree that Julia was the first web designer to join, but she frequently missed the meetings. Was she still part of the group? Who knew. Was I to quit marketing my web design just because she was the first one in the group? Does commitment to the group count at all?

For most leads group or networking groups, the first person in the group who has a particular business offering is considered the main person to go to, which is reasonable.

One of the hardest things about being with someone in a similar industry is the fear of competition. There can be a genuine fear that they might steal your business, and bad feelings would arise.

But if both are mature then you will see each other as allies or maybe even partners. Nancy also offered web design but as we got to know each other we figured out a great way to work together. She could do the search engine optimization on site for me and I could design and write sites for her. Over the next two years now we sent send each other a lot of work.

A friend of mine had a computer network company that catered to small businesses. He partnered with a couple guys who sold telephone systems. Since they went after the same customers without fear of competition, they exchanged leads on a consistent basis and both benefited.

I visited recently with Ken recently who anyone would consider a big competitor to me. As we were talking, he described his company as one who plays nicely with others. What a great term. I play nicely with others and realize there is a lot of work for each of us. Maybe we compete for the same business at times, but overall, we can learn to get along.

Can't we all just get along? Look around at your competitors and see if there is a way for you to have a win-win situation with them. And play nicely.