It’s strange isn’t it how the meaning of words changes over time? In wartime years being called a collaborator was tantamount to being called a traitor. In the business sense though, collaboration is a noble thing!
With the current economic climate, we’re all looking for ways in which we can maximise our bottom line. One way in which we may be able to achieve this is through collaboration.
Businesses collaborating is nothing new, of course. To a certain extent we’re all doing it with networking events and chambers of commerce, trying to help one another along as best we can, offering recommendations for our business buddies. The kind of collaboration that I’m talking about in this piece though goes deeper than that, I’m talking about full-blown, no holds barred, hardcore collaboration!
When we think of collaborating we often think of working with other similar businesses, effectively pooling resources to make a larger version of the kind of business we already have. Maybe dealing with overflow from another business when there’s too much to handle (we can all dream!) But what about collaborating with totally different spheres of business?
Think for a minute of what this kind of collaboration could bring.
If you’re creating websites, how powerful is full collaboration with a PR company? You both deal with promoting your clients. By combining your skill sets you effectively move into the realms of much larger, more diverse, organisations who have departments who can co-operate.
We’re not talking about mutual recommendations here, where the guy running the printing firm agrees that he will give you a mention when he’s doing a run of business cards for a customer in return for you promoting his firm.
We’re talking about the kind of collaboration where there’s a genuine benefit to your customers by joining forces with another business. Where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Where there’s a real opportunity to pull in more leads and clients than if you were going it alone.
Moreover, collaboration may allow you to spread your promotional costs. It will certainly introduce you to potential clients to whom you would not have been exposed otherwise. It will offer you another sounding board from which to bounce ideas. Think what other opportunities such a collaboration could bring.
Why stop with a single collaboration, why not form a collaboration consortium?
Have a think about your business and those local to you. With a little bit of lateral thought I’ll bet that there are profitable local collaborations simply waiting to be made.