Collaborating for Success
Business Karma
How to have good business karma
– Treat everyone the same, regardless of their found success
– Repay kindness’ and pay it forward
– Share without any expectations
– Don’t be afraid to share someone else. You are not in competition with anyone other than yourself
– Have confidence in yourself and your work, and others will too
– Open yourself to new experiences with a loving heart
I have been very fortunate lately to be part of new and exciting opportunities for my business. I recently became the official crochet designer for Darn Good Yarn and we will be the next cover story for Crochet Savvy Online Magazine. These opportunities were achieved not only because of my hard work, but also networking and collaborating. I also believe a large part of my success is due to Karma.
I’d have to honestly estimate that 50% of my success has been being in the right place at the right time and by being noticed by the right people. You can be the most talented person in the world but no one is going to know that if they never see your work. Getting noticed and being seen takes networking and collaboration it also takes respect and mutual reciprocity.
Take for example my new venture with DGY. This all stemmed from a yarn review I did for AllFreeCrochet. That was amazing in itself and I believe part of the reason I was chosen by AFC to do this yarn review is because of all the sharing I have done with them in the past. I have hosted Jenny and Christine as guests on my blog, I have been a guest on their blog, and I share their contests and promotions whenever I can.
Many bloggers expect AFC to promote their patterns but don’t pay any mind to helping to promote AFC. Every collaboration has to be two sided. I share other bloggers posts and patterns without any ulterior motives, I want to see everyone succeed. However, if someone does something nice for me, I always repay the favor. I also treat everyone the same. It doesn’t matter to me whether they have 10k visitors a day on their blog or 10 visitors a day. Every person deserves the same amount of respect regardless of how “popular” they are.
I appreciated every ounce of help I received back when I was first starting and even until today. I try to repay those kindness’ by being helpful to someone else. I share fellow crocheters business’ and fb pages, even if they crochet items similar to my own. I also collaborate with many bloggers who are doing the same things as I am. I do not see them as competition. I am not in competition with anyone but myself. I am confident in my work and in my patterns. I am not afraid of being outshone by anyone else. There is plenty of room for everyone in the crochet sea.
Two of the bloggers I often work with are women who blog about business. Even though I also blog about business and they exclusively blog about business we have all worked together and promoted each other. We do not see each other as competition; we see each other as collogues. Three different bloggers aligned in the same desire to help other women run successful crochet business’.
They are Sedruoula Maruska of Yarn Obsession and Sara Duggan of Crochet Business. I chose them to work with for this article because they both have very similar thoughts on collaboration and sharing as I do. I tend to work more closely with those who feel the same ways as I do. Here is what they had to say on the topic.
“Collaborating with fellow crochet artists not only helps the artists but it helps foster a more collaborative crochet community audience. Collaboration gives the audience an opportunity to expand their view of crochet and exposes them to various styles. Complimentary offerings do wonders to grow audiences and build new friendships. It’s important to remember it’s about giving the audience what they need and not being selfish with what we do. Once we allow ourselves to see the audiences hunger for more variety collaboration will come easily. The one who offers a more expanded view will always be the one with the best audience.” Sedruola Maruska- Yarn Obsession
“In January I contacted Sedruola Maruska about a possible joint partnership and she mentioned she was publishing her Pricing Crochet Fairly Book. I sent over a proposed Guest post on this subject and she used it just before her launch.
We also exchanged buttons for our newsletters. I advertise her Yarn Circle group to my subscribers and she advertising Hooking for Cash to her subscribers.
Although both Sedruola and I have similar businesses we are unique in how we serve the crochet community.
Working with your competition will actually benefit you more than working on your own. I think Lorene and her affiliate program and guest post exchanges is a perfect example.”- Sara Duggan- Crochet Business.
Sedruola has several free e-books detailing ways for you to be successful with your crochet business.
Sara is currently running a 31 day challenge to Improve your blog. Check out Hookin for Cash 101