Connections and Collaborations are the Key to Sustainable Growth
No business can stand alone in this trying period. 8 months into the pandemic and small business communities have realized that they don’t have to go it all alone. There is much more profits and strength in collaborating and connecting with other complementing ventures. If you have realized that your competitive advantage stems from your ability to connect with your community and grow as a group, you have come to the right conclusion.
It’s almost 2021. Business growth can be possible only when information can be quickly shared across the world over several platforms, especially when a company needs to compete in a crowded marketplace. Hence it is crucial that we form a top quality of network to facilitate smooth collaboration.
Collaborations should be part of every business, no matter how old a business is and what level the business is at. It is not just up to the small businesses to look up to stronger players in the market and ask to collaborate. Yes, new businesses do need strategic partners to grow faster and get acknowledged in a new market. Partnering with the big guns in the industry will boost know, like and trust for smaller and newer enterprises.
Collaborations could be internal or external. An internal collaboration would look something like team members working together and producing creative content and sustainable solutions to offer up into the market. Strong collaboration of talented team players can foster action, commitment and engagement, thus leading to creative innovation and package-able solutions.
External collaborations like strategic partnerships, referral partnerships and supply chain partnerships can help tremendously to create a lot of visibility to your brand, thus increasing your brand awareness and recognition, boosting sales.
External collaborations also look like paid partnership at social media and offline campaigns.
Strategic partnerships
A fitness instructor and a sports nutrition products manufacturer form a partnership to cater to the same clientele. A winery and a dairy farmer form a partnership to offer the best wine and cheese experience. A code developer, a copy and content writer and a graphic designer come together to create a beautiful functional app or website.
Referral partnerships
You get referrals from friends & existing clients. But referral partnerships go beyond that. When you connect with someone who seems open to sending you business referrals from time to time, you found a referral partner. Examples for this might be a marketing consultant forming partnerships with web designers, copywriters and graphic artists. A physiotherapist forms partnerships with yoga instructors and natural supplement stores. Realtors are referral partners for mortgage agents, home inspectors, general contractors and home staging experts.
Supply chain partnerships
This works fabulously for product based or retail stores that can piggy bank on the marketing efforts of the manufacturers of the goods they sell. By selling Coca-Cola in your store, you’re already in a supply chain partnership with Coca-Cola. Apple and Samsung partnering with various cell phone service providers is also a good example for this kind of partnership.
Great collaborations are formed by openly networking and meeting other business owners. No business is too small to start a collaboration with another business. Konnexions was born out of the need for people getting together to form strategic partnerships with each other for mutual growth. Sign up for one of our meetings, meet other people you could potentially partner with, cross that threshold that is holding you back and grow with us! Let’s form new collaborations and partnerships in the new year!
I’m Summer Diya Selva, I’ve been a digital marketing expert for about 11 years now. I began as a virtual assistant offering digital services and online business management. As I piled add-on services to my offers, a complete digital marketing agency was born. My peers say I seem to also have a fun and unique personality as my peers say, which makes me stand out from the crowd. Hence, I suppose I attract my type of people to work with me, that makes my agency, home to a group of creative and innovative individuals that make up a great team. Many clients ask me to manage all their marketing activities, as they appreciate the benefits of the integrated approach.
On another level, I coach confused and burnt out entrepreneurs on strategically getting back on track to do what’s necessary in their business and achieve success they thought they never could. My coaching model is called Thought Partnership Collaboration which is carefully constructed on developing an entrepreneurial and growth mindset, integrating sustainable behavioural changes with a focus on maintaining it to prevent regression.
