Why Collaboration is Crucial to Your Business Success
The Internet can be a big and lonely place. If you are a freelancer, you may only see your dog or cat for most of the day unless you work with other people. That old saying “two heads are better than one” has staying power for a reason. And working with others makes you stretch and keeps you on your toes. Sharing content from others on social media gives you greater reach. And collaboration makes sense from many different angles.
Twice the Information
There is so much information out there right now, especially in social media. When you collaborate with someone, they may have heard of something that you haven’t. They’ve read an article, heard a webinar, or know a shortcut that you don’t. Not only that, but their circle of friends and contacts is different than yours. Also, twice as many people could see your content. By the way, here’s a great article on how to avoid information overload.
Extra Laughs Per Minute
Besides the extra reach, collaboration is fun. Working with someone else always leads to more laughs per minute (LPM). As this article from PBS states, we don’t need scientists telling us the benefits of humor. A few of them are:
- increased creativity
- decreased pain, and
- an increase in the ability to deal with stress.
Inspiration and Support
Every entrepreneur has moments when they want to throw in the towel. We don’t talk about them much. But with other entrepreneurs that you trust, you can share some of those moments. Chances are, your work friends will share how they’ve made it through those moments. Some days are tough, but someone else has had the same problem as you.
My good friends at Blue Steele Solutions Create Websites
Shared Clients
Often, when someone asks me for a service that I don’t provide, I’m happy to give names of others who do. For instance, I don’t create websites, but my good friends at Blue Steele Solutions do. Odds are, others can do the same thing with your business. Some clients may need anything from a new website to SEO to social media marketing. You may be able to create a virtual business organization to provide everything.
What Has Collaboration Done for You Lately?
I’m curious if you have collaborated on projects. Were they long-term or short-term? And what benefits did you receive from them?
As a General Contractor we live by collaboration. We often referred to as a “paper contractor” because we design and supervise but don’t perform work ourselves. It’s so much fun to collaborate with our design-build subcontractors and see a project to completion. Great post. People should realize they can collaborate, instead of compete. :)
It’s a much different way of thinking, one that some haven’t embraced fully, Bridget.
A team is its own ecosystem and creates much more than one would expect. Thanks for explaining how Riggins works collaboratively.
Thanks again and I love collaborating with you!
Carol
So true Carol. Collaborative enterprise will become a larger part of all business bB2B, B2C, and NFP. And I love the LPM’s!
Hi Randy,
So true about collaboration becoming a larger part of business!
Thanks for stopping by.
Carol
I must have completely missed this post the first time around!
Collaboration is such an important part of business now both with peers and clients. From that perspective the world is a much better place. We often, especially as entrepreneurs, fall into the trap of thinking it’s us against the world and that we have to do everything. Most learn the hard way that’s not the case. I know I was in that mindset when I started my business 10 years ago and all it did was make me super stressed. Collaboration is now part of everything I do and creativity, business and fun flow more than they used to.
Great post and good reminders of why we need to collaborate on an ongoing basis.
Thank you, Kittie! Through collaboration with you on our Google Plus hangouts, I’ve come to see a different part of the world as well as your viewpoint from across the pond. In collaboration, one plus one does not equal two, but three, in my opinion. Thank you for your comments!
Carol