Building web designer relationships may come easy to some people. For others, it’s like pulling teeth. Somewhere the chemical balance in our brains controls our personality and for better or worse, we’re stuck with it. And you know what? That’s ok.
Not everyone is built to be Bill Gates or Gavin Belson. A lot of us avoid confrontation at all (or most) costs, but we can still be confident in our abilities.
The importance lies in the ability to find commonalities or sharing Clients from Hell stories.
We’re all a lot more alike than we think and finding common ground can create some amazing opportunities.
Finding Common Ground
Hosting errors and tech talk are only a small piece of forming relationships, certainly with web designers in a similar position.
Often times, it’s best just to reach out and talk about anything other than web design or projects or deadlines. You know, a change of pace is nice.
In my experience, personal relationships tend to build stronger connection than work relationships.
So what are some areas of common ground? Well, here are a few:
- Gaming
- Sports
- Weather
- Food (see: Tacos)
- Home Projects
- Family
- Coffee
I know, I know. I’m no guru providing enlightenment, but hopefully you’ll step out a little bit and develop a more personal relationship with your partners or clients or fellow web designers.
Partnership Opportunities
The great thing about strong relationships is you can turn into the expert in a certain area.
For instance, maybe you have more expertise is jQuery and a web design friend needs a little help. It may take you 10 minutes to help them out, but you save them hours of time trying to figure it out.
On the flip side, maybe you need some design help from that web design friend. Do you think think they’d be happy to help you with your problem? I would hope so.
In this business it seems like it’s you against the world and the majority of the time it’s not.
There are plenty of business out there that need help whether it be SEO or a new website, there’s plenty of businesses out there.
Forming strong relationships with other web designers can lead to opportunities you’ve never even thought of or even help you find some areas for improvement in your business.
Generating Referrals
A cornerstone of any web design business (and most other businesses, too) is referrals.
Getting a recommendation from a former or current client or a fellow web design friend, most of the time will lead to better chance of landing the contract.
People trust people they know and want to work with people other people trust.
Developing these strong relationships will help vault you into a new level, a new connected web.
Conclusion
Finding common ground generates partnership opportunities that lead to referrals.
Sharing your expertise with others can give you a hand to reach out to when your stuck.
Talking about something other than web design can help clear your mind.
Most importantly, as small agencies or freelancers know, having “co-workers” to vent to and help motivate can help bring back a little sanity in your everyday life.
