• Increased profit opportunities
• Defense of competitive position
• Increased sales of existing products

"Partnering collaborations are among the most creative relationships in business," says Steve Hamm, managing partner of middle market advisory services for PricewaterhouseCoopers. "Each arrangement is unique -- crafted to bring new resources and a fresh perspective."

Product oriented companies cited the creation of new products or lines of business as a big value in partnering. Service businesses said they used collaborations to increase sales of existing products.

The survey also showed that large businesses are willing to partner with smaller companies. That's good news for entrepreneurs who want to do business with big corporations.

But entrepreneurs can also use collaborative partnerships among themselves. Bundling products, marketing in tandem and selling complimentary services are just some of the benefits available through partnering. Read more in the section below about how your enterprise can profit from a collaborative partnership.
 

What You Can Do


Small-business owners—including solo entrepreneurs—are uniquely positioned to form beneficial outside partnerships. By teaming together, you can offer customers greater variety and take on larger, more profitable projects or orders. Here’s how:

• Tackle larger projects. Partner up with another entrepreneur who offers complementary—not competitive—products or services. For instance a graphic designer can team up with a copywriter to deliver a larger, more complete project than either provider could offer alone.

• Combine marketing efforts. By sharing marketing efforts, you and your partner split expenses, so you both save money. At the same time, you can reach more potential customers and expand into new markets more quickly than you can on your own.

• Focus on strength. Partner with other businesses that offer expertise you don’t have. Maybe you specialize in developing computer databases for customer management, but you don’t have experience in actually putting together computers for a small-business network. Find a partner who knows the hardware. Then sell your services in tandem to clients.

• Bundle products. Bundle one of your products or services with that of another business to create a special offer that targets a niche market. For instance an accountant and financial planner could partner to offer end-year end tax planning (from the accountant) and next year financial planning (from the planner). That offer expands the customer base for each service provider.