Freedman Consulting has an answer. Click here and then on the “Why Solo Practices Fail” link in that blog post to download the PDF of a recent article written by Ellen Freedman for her business’s website. Her fifth item – “Reinventing the Wheel” – is especially interesting to me. I’ve been thinking a lot about how solos inevitably get caught up in “have to do everything myself”-itis after they launch their practices, and how we really need to get over ourselves and learn to turn to others when appropriate. Saving a few thousand dollars on computer training might be great for a solo’s bottom line in the short term, but in the long term, he’ll suffer the consequences.
It might seem odd that I’m linking to someone who could conceivably be called a competitor. I’m doing it for three reasons:
- It’s a good article that will benefit my readers.
- I believe very strongly in embracing competition and keeping the conversation flowing both amongst competitors and between service providers and those they serve.
- I wanted to make the point in #2 to those who might disagree with it.
I’m actually embarrassed when bloggers behave like the competitor I wrote about here. Two people lose out when a blogger acts like that – the blogger doing the “shutting out” and the reader. (Of course the blogger who gets shut out loses, too, but as long as he or she doesn’t respond in kind, there’s a certain benefit in knowing you’ve taken the high road.)
Ignoring the competition – icing them out, pretending they just don’t exist – might make you feel good in the short term but it sends one message above all others: that you care more about your ego than your clients and potential clients. Is that the message you’re really aiming to send?
Technorati Tags: relating to other bloggers, dealing with competition
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