The importance of networking with industry colleagues

The more small business owners or managers talk to other professionals within your industry, the more they learn and grow which then impacts their performance and the performance of their business.

When you make the time to talk to colleagues within your industry, you learn more about the theories and practices around your industry; how to be more efficient in running your business; about the ethics, standards and rates of other businesses and companies within your industry.

We are all different. Your knowledge base will be different than your colleagues. By sharing your own information about your specific areas of expertise with others within your industry, that articulation of what you know helps you better understand what you know, if you get my meaning. Also, explaining new ideas or information to your colleagues that helps them become more knowledgeable will, over time, earn you a good reputation among your peers.

And businesses with a good reputation are businesses on the road to success.

Other benefits of investing your time and energy in networking with your industry colleagues are:

1. you will learn and keep up-to-date about industry developments,
2. you can ask for knowledge that is outside your expertise, thereby avoiding showcasing your ignorance to your clients
3. you will be given opportunities for new clients or business growth that you would otherwise have  missed,
4. you’ll get to celebrate your achievements and congratulate others’ achievements among like-minded people (=  warm fuzzy feelings and job satisfaction),
5. you will find colleagues with whom you can safely and professionally vent, or seek guidance or assistance
6. through getting to know other professionals in your industry, you will be able to refer your clients to colleagues who you know will look after them, which will reflect well on you
7. through showing other professionals in your industry that you are professional, reliable and provide quality service to your clients, you will potentially receive referrals of clients from your colleagues.

Example: how I have used my networking to benefit my business

Through my full membership of Institute of Professional Editors (IPEd) and its networking group, Secret Editors Business, I learn and share information with my colleagues in the editing industry on a regular basis. This aspect of my professional development is integral to my daily work as an editor and running my editing business. Being a member of IPEd, and frequent contact with other members, has led to many new client contacts and training opportunities.

I regularly meet my colleagues in the Gippsland Editors network. Meeting face to face is a lovely change from my usual method of communicating online and via telephone. I attended IPEd’s national editors conference in May 2019: Beyond the Page 2019, a three-day event, where the networking aspect was as important as the information gleaned from the seminars and workshops. I finally met face to face with dozens of editors whom I already knew well as a result of our online interactions and was introduced to dozens of new colleagues in the writing, editing and self-publishing industries.

Finally, I attend on site professional development events in Gippsland about editing, writing and small business management whenever the opportunity arises and I am able to fit them in around my work commitments. One reason for attending these events is to learn more about that particular topic. The other important reason is that it gives me the opportunity to meet others within my industry, or other small business owners.

Image: Pixabay (Creative Commons licence: no attribution required)