Sometimes when seeking to grow your business it can be a good idea to partner with an existing company. When should small businesses take this approach and how should they go about doing it?
Small businesses can benefit from all the help they can get in today's economic environment. Partnering can be one way of truly boosting your small business's growth strategy. Businesses should look into partners once they have a steady foundation and are in a strong position to offer complementary solutions to potential partners. The most important aspect of finding a partner to align with your small business's growth strategy is knowing your own business. You need to ensure you are aware not only of your strengths but also your small business's weaknesses. Identify what gets in the way of smooth operation, what areas need to be improved, so as to understand how to develop the areas that are not functioning optimally. Furthermore, you should become an expert on your competition to ascertain why, how, and in what areas your small business is better and worse than them. Once you have identified the areas where you company needs to grow then you can evaluate strategically which partners would be suitable. Knowing your strengths means you will have a clear idea of what you can offer your partner.
Find a partner who can complement your small business, helping you to improve those aspects that need extra attention so as to improve your growth strategy. For example, perhaps you have insufficient capital to develop your business. In this case your ideal partner would have a large free cash flow and large amounts of capital.
Another possible scenario is that your small business does not have much media exposure which is undermining brand recognition. In this situation partnering with a business that is well-known would allow you to leverage their brand so as to give your small business more exposure.
Another way in which you could improve your small business's growth strategy is by partnering with a company who can enable you to win business by offering services that you do not have but that complement yours.
However there are several things you should be aware of. You should not rush into a partnership. You must gather detailed knowledge about your partner, otherwise you could end up with problems that could hinder your growth strategy. You must be able to trust your business partner and in order to ensure everything is above board you should vet them. You should conduct background checks. Before signing anything you should also address any potential issues that could arise, including worst-case scenarios. You should hire an attorney to help you understand your partnership documents before you sign them. Finally, ensure you can be useful to your business partner in a meaningful way. If good things happen for their business as a result of your partnership then they will be motivated to work with you and it will be a win-win situation guaranteeing growth for both businesses.
