Collaboration Rather Than Competition – The Need for Wise Partnerships is Higher than Ever

I have owned and operated my business for nearly 15 years. Although the reasons for being in business have remained consistent, the method in running and building my business has drastically changed. The greatest change came with the onslaught of the Internet. Another huge change came with 9/11. Business as many of us knew it changed forever. Unfortunately, many people dug their heels in after 9/11 and waited for things to go back to the way they were. It didn’t take long for many of the heel diggers to go out of business. Some of us realized things were never going to be the same. We needed to be flexible in our approach to our business. With today’s economy, entrepreneurs are once again faced with the need to adjust and transform. One of the greatest changes anyone can make is to move from the space of competition into the space of collaboration. Rather than taking an adversarial position with your competition, perhaps you could find ways to partner with your competition. There are plenty of people who believe that there is only so much to go around and they have to protect every bit of their market interest. Others believe that through effective partnerships one can actually have a greater market reach and higher revenues than if they attempt to do things on their own. This is especially true for solopreneurs such as authors, speakers, coaches and consultants. I have had countless successful partnerships with those that could be considered my competitors. What we found is that by joining together on specific projects we were able to more fully benefit our customers and clients. The best part is that when you collaborate with others you are in more of a position to bring a full range of services and products to your customers. In the world of Internet Marketing this is done through Joint Venture Partnerships and Affiliate partnerships. Joint Venture Partnership One aspect of this type of partnership is cross promotion with the goal of one company increasing market reach and database size for all partners and bringing appropriate solutions to their market. Affiliate Partnership In this type of partnership, someone else (the affiliate) helps to sell your product or service and receives a percentage of that sale based on performance. The affiliate markets to their customers and clients. Common items to sell would be software programs, eProducts, and seminar registrations. This type of partnership allows for increased revenue streams while providing added value to existing clients by offering products and/or services that would be beneficial to them. Both of these options are extremely beneficial to those who have a mindset of collaboration rather than competition. You win, you partners win and most of all, you customers and clients win.