Collaborating with Other Businesses
Life is about the connections that we make, and this goes especially double for how we make our living. For this reason, learning to collaborate with other businesses is a key skill for any business owner to develop.
Indeed, our modern economy is built around these business partnerships, as many businesses don’t have the weight or the workforce to be entirely self-sufficient. However, there is definitely a right way and a wrong way to go about setting up business partnerships.
For example, you certainly don’t want to set up deals that will push customers away from your business and into the hands of your “partner.” Here are some tips to help you navigate the world of business collaboration…
Find symbiotic businesses
The first rule of collaborating with other businesses is that you want to find partners who can exist in a sort of symbiotic connection with your business.
This means that the services and products of their business can work in direct conjunction with yours, without adding competition. Symbiotic business relationships provide a boost for each business because they each improve on each other’s services. Although there are times when working with a competitor can be beneficial, such as charity events that benefit the community, it is typically best to not risk giving your competitors any of your own business.
Outsource special skill work
You need to be strategic about how you collaborate with other businesses. Think about how such a partnership can be used to improve your business in ways that couldn’t be addressed before.
One of the most common ways that this happens is with skilled labor that can be costly to maintain within your own business. For example, if your company has an event that needs specially created graphics, you are going to need a graphic designer. However, if you don’t typically need graphics, it is far too expensive to hire a full-time employee to do this work.
Because of this, outsourcing to a company who specializes in this kind of work is beneficial to both of you. Another popular need for outsourced work is for marketing and advertising, such as with this company here.
Use other companies to deal with workforce fluctuations
One resource that every business needs is labor. However, the need for labor often comes in ebbs and flows, due to seasonal business increases, as well as the chaotic randomness that can arise in people’s lives.
Because of this, many businesses build partnerships with companies that provide temp workers. This can allow a business to deal with fluctuations in the need for labor. No matter what type of skilled labor you need, you can undoubtedly find a company that provides it, temporarily, in today’s marketplace.
Even doctors and medical professionals can be utilized by medical practices in temp work, as explained by this article here.
Business partnerships increase your company’s scale
Every partnership that you enter into with your business should be done with the purpose to grow and expand (indeed, one could argue that every decision in business is for these purposes).
One often overlooked benefit of collaborating with other businesses is the possibility of expanding the geographical scale of your business, as well as into other customer bases that you might not have thought possible, before.
So with each possible collaboration, especially longer term ones, you should ask yourself what possibilities exist to grow your business to the next level.
Local alliances build trust
As we stated at the top of this article, there are times when it is appropriate to partner up with a competing business. In particular, a community driven partnership that provides a charitable good to a community is a perfect chance to give back and to show the public that businesses can set aside competition for a greater good.
Not only does this provide a good public image, but it is simply an ethical thing to do. This sort of partnership is often called a “local alliance.” Rallying local businesses around a cause for your city or state builds trust in every business.
These causes can range from food drives, environmental protections, education initiatives, and whatever your imagination comes up with.
Category: Business
