Your community is your biggest business asset. Nurture it.
It’s easy to get lost in the business hustle, but if you miss out on community engagement, you’re losing a huge personal and professional opportunity.
We’ve spoken at length about our relocation to Crestone, Colorado. It was a personal goal of ours to reach a beautiful, mountain setting and we’re beyond lucky to call this quaint town — home.
While we were planning on a down-turn in business with the transition, we’ve had the most amazing experience of growth. And why’s that? Well, outside of a strict commitment to many business strategies, we must say — it’s our community.
We know not everyone lives in a small-town atmosphere (or would want to, for that matter!), but believe we all could learn a little bit from accepting a slower, more community-oriented mind with business.
Why has it worked out for us? Well, a year in, these main learnings stand out.
Communities generally want to support each other. Even in large cities, your local neighbors would likely want to hire you, a real person, over some robot, half-way across the world. Of course, there’s always going to be someone or some business that can out price you, and you have to anticipate that. But, we’ve learned if you stay competitive, stay flexible and communicative, you’ll often win the business of your community members. There’s a sense of accountability that keeps everyone in check. The local movement is here for a reason, embrace it as a business strategy and you’ll get your investment back.
Networking works — why do you think LinkedIn has been so successful? Yes, taking a smaller job isn’t something that excites every business person. But if you can see each interaction, even small, little ones, as an opportunity, you can slowly build your business up in your community. We’ve partnered on small jobs and volunteered in town and months later, have a strong referral pool coming through our doors. It was certainly worth the time up front to build up a group of great business connections.
And lastly, really, what’s the point of life? Is it literally all about profits? For some, perhaps. For us, it’s about having an enjoyable lifestyle and being rewarded in our work. Taking on meaningful projects and seeing other businesses succeed with our help is transformative. It feels good. It makes life worth it.
Now, you don’t always have to approach your community in a woo-woo way. If the feel-good, Buddhist philosophy doesn’t speak to you, learn the a different language. Not everything has to be hippie dippie, but if your business is struggling, an essential place so start is your community.
Volunteer, meet up with like-minded people, learn, offer your expertise and see where it goes. At the end of the day, the time spent with others will always pay back dividends. If you’re business-minded, it’s hard to argue with community investment.