Photo thanks to Solo, with others.

1. You’re establishing yourself as an expert

I blogged about this earlier, but it’s worth repeating. The more you ooze expertise in your field, the more people will be willing to trust you. The more people trust you, the better your reputation will be and the more willing potential customers will be to do business with you.

2. People don’t have the drive to effectively steal your knowledge

Unless you provide a service that can be copied efficiently by anyone (in which case you’re in trouble), the majority of people who come in contact with your knowledge will not “steal” your ideas. And imparting elementary knowledge about your industry doesn’t help your competitors: they already know it.

You obviously understand the way your industry works, you’ve built a business inside it. But communicating that to outsiders is difficult, if not impossible. Just like doctorese.

Think of how much work, dedication, and sweat you put in to building your business. Not many people can be successful at what you do. Your actual service was your foundation, to be sure, but now it’s just one small part of your company. Now your business is the sum of the relationships, client base, and brand identity you’ve established over the years.

Just because someone can do what you do, doesn’t mean they can do it well. And just because they can do it well, doesn’t mean they can do it well right now, where you are.

So don’t be afraid to give away a little knowledge, it’s a good investment.