November 11th, 2023 – Make Friends, Not Enemies
The title of the blog says it all: make friends, not enemies.
In any industry it is easy to write off other people as competitors. They bid for the same jobs, clients may prefer their work to yours, and you must make yourself stand out in a sea of others just like you. Those things are all true. However, they don’t negate the fact that you are going to win or lose clients based on your own merits, not others’. It is beneficial to spend your time finding support in the industry rather than making enemies. I’ll tell you a few reasons why.
Help and Support Each Other
I think this might be the most important reason. Times get hard, and it can be difficult to find others who fully understand what you are going through. Having friends in the industry you work in can be beneficial for your mental health, because those people have experienced your struggle firsthand. There is a comfort in being able to ask questions without being judged. Not only can you find comfort in their experience, but they can share knowledge about how to move forward. You can then spread that knowledge to others and be someone’s comfort later down the road.
When you have incredibly specific industry questions, you’re backed against the wall, and you need an answer NOW – what are you going to do? Your client depends on you. You have a deadline to reach. Your reputation is going to ride on seeing this through. Ask for help. Lean on your network. Your clients deserve the best of you, and if that requires swallowing your pride and asking someone how to scope one specific word, you should do it. Continuous learning is a goal you should strive for, no matter where that knowledge comes from.
Help with Overflow
Building trust is essential in scopistry, proofreading, or any industry. Once you have a long-term client that you have built trust with, you don’t want to jeopardize that for any reason. If this client approaches you with a job that you are simply too swamped to handle, you may be able to rely on a friend to cover this work. Sending jobs to a trusted back-up can help you, your client, and your back-up. This may come full circle and benefit you later. This back-up may then trust you enough to send their own overflow your way. Even if it doesn’t come to bring you more work, it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that you protected your client and your relationship with them.
This could potentially just lead to a good friend later in your life. With trust comes friendship. And if one of you happens to leave this industry, get a new position, start a business, you may be able to supply each other with references.
Marketing
Marketing yourself is a different beast entirely. No matter which career you choose, getting your name in front of clients and building a reputable business are beasts you must slay. When I first started learning about website building, SEO, Keyword Research, and Analytics, my head started spinning. It was something I knew I wasn’t going to be able to navigate on my own, and I did benefit greatly from the help of others in the industry. These are tips now that I can help share with others.
In the words of Niels Bohr, “Technology has advanced more in the last thirty years than in the previous two thousand.” This quote is also over fifty years old, and it is still true. We are left with a world where the internet is king, and if you cannot master it, you will not survive. Having friends in the industry who have also slayed this beast will be beneficial.
Look at their websites, follow their social media accounts, see how they market themselves. People who have been doing this for a long time will always have knowledge to offer the younger generation. And the younger generation will be able to offer social media and marketing strategies to the seasoned vets who started their career off the internet.
Always Learning Always Growing
I believe wholeheartedly that you should never stop learning. Socrates once said, “As for me, all I know is that I know nothing.” Your area of business is a complex industry, and no matter how much you know, you will always need to know more. It is going to push your business a lot further to be able to ask questions and learn from people who have been doing this a lot longer than you have. And as you learn and grow, you will be able to help others learn and grow as well. You can gain knowledge from the questions people ask in social media groups, the experiences people share in their posts, or the advice offered in forums and chats.
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As I said in the beginning, it may be easy to assume everyone is a competitor that you need to be wary of. But it is not going to help you in any way. If you are talented, hardworking, and able in your own right, then the abilities of others will have no impact on you. You stand to gain a lot more by making friends than by making enemies. And you can use your success to help others later.
I hope you enjoyed this week’s blog post! Let me know in the comments what you think or share your own experiences with industry friends. If you like this post, make sure to leave a comment down below and check back for new posts on the Next Step Scopist blog.
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