How to Grow Your Business Through Collaboration aka Grow Your Business, Not Your Workload

When I first started my business, all I wanted was to earn at least as much as I had in my job, and to be able to call my time my own. I didn’t want to hire employees, subcontract work out, or deal with too many clients at a time. In essence, my intention was to keep it simple.

I have since found from speaking with hundreds of recovering employees that this is a common theme. Perhaps it’s the remnants of too many unproductive meetings, working by committee, and supervising staff that causes us to want to go it alone.

Fortunately, I was smart enough to realize early on in my business that running solo would soon put me on a plateau, money wise, and energy wise. As a mentor from the horse world likes to say, “You’re never going to get rich with your own two hands.” Whether your financial goals are basic, or you have multiple zeros in mind, the fundamental principle is the same. In addition to getting help and making sure you’re not spending time doing what someone else can do better, faster or cheaper, the quickest path to a sustainable business for most of us is collaboration.

My philosophy on collaboration in business is summed up brilliantly by Henry Ford, who said:
“Coming together is a beginning.
Keeping together is progress.
Working together is success. “

This is a hard pill to swallow for many corporate fugitives who cut their professional teeth in a competitive mindset world. But actively seeking out alliances, passing on work that doesn’t fit you to a “competitor” and opening yourself up to new ideas and brainstorming with others is exactly what will propel your business forward.

Joint ventures are one of the best ways to ensure a constant stream of business via lead generation because they multiply results but divide the effort. They are arrangements where two or more businesses join together for the purpose of creating a specific product or service and sharing the expenses, profits and workload, or where complementary businesses interested in the same market agree to cross-promote each others’ services. This can be done with or without a direct financial compensation.

• For joint venture partners with an online focus (i.e. who have the infrastructure to promote services online and who use email marketing), it is often more effective to seek several “smaller players” than to attempt to build relationships with those who are more prominent. Generally this is because businesses with smaller email databases tend to have more flexibility in their promotional calendar.
• Team up with other businesses that serve the same market by providing services that are either complementary, e.g. others who serve this market or who serve your ideal client at a different point (look for trigger events as clues). Ideal joint venture partners are not in direct competition with you, provide complementary services to the same market, and share the same goals and values. You don’t need many joint venture partners to have dramatic results. Start locally in the community to get local leads, and connect with potential joint venture contacts online via social media and connection.
• There are many simple ways to work with joint venture partners, here are some:
  • Agreeing to feature each other as a recommended resource
  • Exchanging testimonials (provided you have actually used each others’ services)
  • Packaging a product or service together as a special promotion
  • Recommending each others’ ezines
  • Recommending each others’ teleseminars or events
  • Putting on a teleseminar or workshop together, or interviewing each other and sending the article or audio to each others’ clients
  • Providing products to each other to include as free bonuses
  • Participating in each others’ affiliate or referral programs
  • Co-sponsoring events
  • Purchasing shared advertisements
  • And endless other possibilities!

Remember: make it simple and easy for your joint venture partners to promote you by having material to supply to them including pre-written information and templates in multiple formats (for example, letters, short descriptions that can be included in a ezine, samples of Facebook updates and tweets, logos and banners that can be used, and easy to follow instructions and calendar with suggested timelines).

And most importantly? Devote regular time to developing joint venture relationships. Treat this list of people as you would your client list.  Your network is what will keep business coming to you in the years to come. Nurturing it in the early years will help you grow a meaningful, rewarding and sustainable business.

Want to use this article? You can as long as you include this footer: Sherri Garrity is the Chief Corporate Fugitive and creator of the Five Keys Success SystemTM for ex-corporate employees and aspiring entrepreneurs who want to break free from the confines of their corporate experience and live outside of the ordinary. The Corporate Fugitive system demystifies the business of setting up, managing, marketing and growing a successful and extraordinary business. Visit www.corporatefugitive.com for information and step-by-step resources to take you from overwhelmed employee to extraordinary entrepreneur.