There is an effort afoot to bring together common businesses in the county to form associations or industry groups. It’s a good idea because such groups are almost always good for business.

I say that because there was a time in my life when if I was told I should work together with my direct competitors and form an association, I would have laughed and refused.

This is despite the fact that I was already in a “sector partnership” that included my direct competitors. In the case to which I refer, it was the newspaper publishing sector and my paper at that time, the Sky-Hi News, competed directly with that other newspaper, The Winter Park Manifest.

And yet, we were members together in the Colorado Press Association. And yes, the press association did some good things that helped our businesses, either in spite of, or because of, our competitive situation.

This new effort, which is being launched by DiAnn Butler, the county economic developer, and related partners, is kicking off with a sector partnership meeting called “Collaborative Growth: Building Strong Industry Partnerships.” It’s set to take place from 9 a.m. to noon Thursday, Nov. 6 at Sun Outdoors in Granby. There will be coffee, refreshments and maybe a dough nut or two.

What is a sector partnership? It’s a group like the Grand County Builders Association, which was formed to help that industry in Grand County try to address collectively common problems that industry sector faces. It works. The Grand County Board of Realtors strikes me as another good sector partnership. But there are so many other possibilities.

I think of restaurants in the county as an example. In fact, several years ago, there was a serious effort to from just such an association.

What about an accommodations or hotel / motel sector partnership? Certainly there are issues that face all these entities that maybe could be resolved through a localized yet collective approach.

What about a housekeeping and cleaning sector partnership? There are many such businesses in the county that do that sort of work and many of them operate in silos, perhaps not aware that their problems are also the problems of their competitors. And maybe, through a collective approach, they could help to solve some of their similar problems.

It would be fun, maybe, to have a brewery sector partnership. I know that I would like to be at their first meeting.

Such partnerships can help with cooperative training efforts for staff and management. Such partnerships could help make more reasonable efforts to solve problems a sector may face with government. In other words, it’s perhaps much more effective for lobbying to occur on behalf of an entire group of businesses — rather than just one business — in front of a town board or the county commissioners, or even the state legislature.

I’m pretty sure that if I was an elected official I’d be more likely to listen to the issues of an entire sector or group than just one lone ranger.

Which is really the whole point of this. No man is an island and no business is a lone ranger. There are groups and natural conglomerations of people with like interests and concerns, all that could be resolved collectively to improve business.

So I encourage business owners and such to attend the event on Nov. 6 an in effort to discover common issues shared with your competitors. These issues will probably be easier solved through a partnership than as a lone voice in the wilderness.

Patrick Brower is the Enterprise Facilitator for the Grand Enterprise Initiative. He offers free and confidential business management coaching to anyone who wants to start or expand a business in Grand County. He is also the author of “KILLDOZER: The True Story of the Colorado Bulldozer Rampage.”  He can be reached by calling 970-531-0632 or at pbrower@consultbrower.com.