Illumin Blog

As a business owner, you have only so much bandwidth in terms of time, energy, money or staff to grow your business.
One of the best ways to expand your capabilities, impact and reach is through strategic partners.

Partnerships provide collaboration and leverage while allowing you to optimize your respective assets and resources all with the goal of impacting your bottom line.

Why Partner?

The reasons for partnering are many.

• Increase market share
• Expand geographically
• Build mailing lists
• Enhance quality of service
• Reduce costs
• Break into a new market
• Improve corporate positioning
• Add prestige
• Leverage sweat equity
• Co-marketing
• Co-sponsorship
• Share assets
• Link to one another's sites
• Access to cash or capital

As a small or new business, partnerships give you another added advantage. You have a "partner" with whom you can share ideas and gain feedback for your business without the long-term commitment of a business partner.

Who Makes a Great Partner?

Great strategic partners can come from different industries as well as your own. Consider...

Complimentary businesses: Businesses that can enhance your existing service offer or position you as the "go to" resource for all your clients' needs thus enhancing the customer experience.

Completely different businesses: Think out of the box when looking to penetrate a new geographic area, niche or industry. In this economic climate, the opportunity is ripe for non-traditional partnerships.

Competition: I've never met a competitor who wasn't looking to grow their business, too. Explore how you create a noncompetitive partnership that can leverage one another's assets or resources to achieve your respective goals.

You Have What They Want

One thing I learned fairly early on was don't be afraid to approach the "bigger fish" as a prospective strategic partner.

A larger or more established firm may have market share, brand recognition or distribution power, but as a smaller or newer firm, you may have something they want, such as a new product, service or technology, for example.

The key is to own what you know and know what you own so you can present your positioning and assets confidently when you approach that company.

Protect Your Relationships

Protect your strategic partnership relationships by getting it in writing. It's easy to get caught up in the excitement and possibilities of a new partnership, but when it comes down to sharing responsibilities, expenses or revenue, for example, memory isn't always accurate and interpretation is often subjective.

According to Nina Kaufman, Esq., business attorney and owner of Ask The Business Lawyer, "Strategic partnership agreements are as much about protecting your a** as they are about protecting your assets.  Most relationships come to an end for one reason or another.  It may be uncomfortable, but think about why you might want (or need) the relationship to end.  Is its purpose project-specific -- once the project ends, does the relationship?  Or do you have specific goals, timeframes, or standards of conduct, which, if not met, would mean the relationship loses value?  Don't become so besotted with your new strategic partnership "beau" that you don't carefully evaluate whether the relationship makes good business sense."
 
Be sure, also, to review the partnership on a regular basis to ensure that both parties are still getting what they desire in the relationship and that customers are still getting what they want or need.

A great partnership is worth protecting legally and through open dialogue.

Protect your partnership as it can be one of your most valuable business assets.