So I was doing my laundry other day. I live in a condo... and shared a laundry room. I saw this kid dumping a bag of rags into the dryer. I said that's a lot of rags there what did you clean up? Kid says my dad is a window washer. I had the idea to network so I had the kid a business card and ask if his dad could give him one as well so you know..... maybe a day I can't do a job I could refer him to them, and vice versa. Did I do a good think to network or is it going to hurt me in the long run? I was just trying to build friendly competition, and possibly work together maybe if the a job was big enough.

Depends on the situation and their goal. You'll need to check them out first and see their strategies they might try something to ruin you but overall it can be useful to work together and then you can make some plan to get their customers but you really need to watch out

I would suggest trying it but not too much, like SQcleaner said not all businesses are that good towards you but I'd definitely try it at least once, so far I didn't but now that I think about it I might try it in the future

Networking is a good thing, it's important both to make new alliances and to keep an eye on potential competitors. But before you start working with this person, you should research him at least a little, to make sure he would be a good partner to recommend. You know that every recommendation you make reflects on you directly, so you need to be careful.

Good thing.