If I asked you what was more important to you, the industry you are in or your own brand, what would say? What if I told you that all your competition closed its doors today and you were the only business left in your industry...what would you say then? I think that most business owners would be giddy over this fact. No competition means I can charge what I want, take as long as I want, choose the customers I want...right? Maybe...for awhile...but really, you'd be wrong.
Let's step back for a minute and take a look at this scenario. If you are the only game in town, do you think that you will meet the needs of your customers? Maybe you are an optimist like me and you answered one day. Ok, one day, but you will struggle to scale and you will make mistakes. Let's say at best it takes you six months to achieve the goal of scaling to need. Do you think the customers are going to wait on you? Do you think your mistakes are going to be overlooked? Here is what really will happen... You will make some money very quickly because you own the market and you can charge what you want. You will start processes to grow to meet the demands and you will spend that money that you just made. Meanwhile, all the clients and customers that you neglected have moved on to other options and other methods to meet the need that you once filled. Wait, what just happened? Your desire to be the only brand has just smothered your own industry. See, humans naturally adapt and those that couldn't get your product found something else that they might have not otherwise ever looked for or used. With every need comes a solution and someone just solved the problem of you being the only brand in your industry without even being in your industry.
I think that without acknowledging your industry first and your brand second, you are taking from your craft. You are stealing little bits and pieces as time goes by and you are slowly smothering a trade that is your livelihood. I think it's important to reach out and help those in your industry survive because without them, your odds of success are less. I have a constant concern that my industry and my trade is slowly dying. A skillset that my dad taught me and his dad taught him is slowly fading with me and I don't want to see that happen. My goal is to give exposure to my industry first and then work on my brand. At the end of the day what is your brand worth without an industry to support it?