I try to be as transparent as humanly possible on this blog. I feel like my advice is that much more authentic if I’m talking about specific and real experiences from my life and business rather than hypothetical. The most I usually do is change some personal details so customers don’t recognize themselves if they should happen to read my blog.
But, as much as I try to share, I’ve noticed that there is stuff I don’t talk about. Sometimes it’s a really good idea that’s working for us that maybe I’m not willing to share. Sometimes it’s a particularly good deal I’m getting or a really clever thing I’ve set up that I don’t want everyone using. Sometimes, plain and simple, it’s because I don’t want anyone stealing my idea.
There’s always been the idea of “trade secrets.” My husband loves the show How It’s Made but nearly every episode has a part when the factory won’t let them film part of the manufacturing process because it’s their special ingredient or twist on it and they don’t want their competitors to steal it. There are very literal trade secrets, your wholesale Nike shoe supplier, for instance, where it would be a major crisis if your competitor discovered it. But when we’re talking about ideas, especially about how to sell, how to treat customers, blogging and social networking tips, can those really be stolen?
Put another way, am I your competitor just because I’m also selling things? If I teach you my strategies for doing x, couldn’t you, in theory, turn around and use to to steal some of my business? Is there a limit on how transparent we should be with our blog posts and tweets?
My gut reaction is no. You may not sell something even remotely similar to what I sell. Even if we are in the same niche, at part of me feels that there’s room for everyone. But, no matter how I try to stop myself, I still hold some things back. Is this just paranoia or good business practice?
What do you think? Do you appreciate when others are transparent about running their business? Do you do the same?
RSS - Posts
Definitely good business practice. You’ve worked hard to research and develop your own niche, with source and methods that work for you. It’s only fair that you should reap the benefit of all your hard work. It’s great to assist others in honing their own businesses, but they’ll be better served if they do their own research and develop their own methods.
To paraphrase a particular political sentiment that’s popular at the moment, it’s better to give a hand up than a hand out. To be even more cliched, you can use the old saw of teaching a person to fish instead of giving them a fish.
I think it’s great to help other people with their businesses and guide them in the right direction so they can find their own best practices. Heck, I even contributed recently to a book on sourcing products, giving some guidelines related to my own niche. I did not, however, give away all my secrets. I learned, sometimes the hard way (and often the expensive way), about what has value and what doesn’t in my niche, so it would be bad business to give away all of my hard-won knowledge.
It is a tough balance sometimes. People just getting started often don’t even know where to look for the information they need and often the “old guard” hoards every bit of it (and can be quite nasty, even in response to simple or naive questions). I think a middle ground of helping people to find what they need without giving up all your sources or business secrets is a good approach. Some will probably argue that they already have to much competition and don’t want any part of helping others, but I think that at least pointing people in the right direction is a good thing to do. You never know when a bit of that good karma may come back around to you some day 🙂