Have you partnered successfully with other business owners ?

[GeorgeM]

To extend your business reach, either on a formal or informal basis, and did it help your own business development ?

 

[jamieclick]

What kind of partnerships? You mean like reselling, referrals etc?

 

[majimbo]

It depends on the business partner that you have. Some are become successful and some are failure.

 

[GeorgeM]

I had in mind the following examples - being a reseller, sub-contracting work, being an agent, combining to undertake larger jobs etc.

So not formal business partnerships - where its one business, but just collaboration.

 

[S-Marketing]

This principle is the foundation of any marketing plan written by anyone who knows anything about marketing.

If you aren't operating your business in this way you are doing it wrong.

 

[tony84]

I work with a financial advisor. He hates doing mortgages and i cant do pensions/investments. Works well, we just split any commission accordingly. I also work with a solicitors but i just get a flat rate refferal fee for any work i send their way, they dont promise to send me mortgage clients.

2 different ways of partnering but both seem to work well at the minute. Both are informal agreements. So we can both leave at any time we wish if it doesnt work out or were not happy etc.
There has to be an element of trust but with me and the financial advisor we both have to use the same systems in order to get our commission so we can check up on our client we refferred if we want to.

 

[JoyDivision]

I work with another IT company who is based about 6 miles away. If there is a job at my end he refers them to me vice versa. He seems to find more work for me than I do for him though.

 

[GeorgeM]

Yes, the examples quoted about are what I had in mind. Anyone else care to share examples of how they've found benefit in collaborations ?

An example in my own case was where I acted as the Sales & Marketing Channel for an IT services company that was adjacent to my own. Doing all of their business development on a commission sharing basis.

 

[Faevilangel]

I do loads of this and all work well, examples are:

Web hosting - I refer all my clients to a web host I trust, the client gets the support directly and I get a good vibe from helping and the host pays me for the referral.

Web design - I am a coder so any designs I need to do are outsourced, always done this and works well as it means I concentrate on my client and the bits of the job I like and outsource the bits I don't.

Silent partner - I am a "silent partner" for different companies from graphic designers, seo agencies and marketers, which means I don't deal with the client and my client can show they have more skills to supply to clients.

Collabs - When I have larger projects, I bring in 2 or 3 guys who help me break the project into manageable sizes which means it's still finished on time but with 3/4 heads on it.

Referrals - I limit myself to what type of work I do, so If I get a request for something I don't do then I outsource to a recommended partner, who won't pay me for the lead but would pass me leads on work they don't do.

Outsourcing helps me make my business keep going by being able to keep clients happy and being able to do more jobs than I would if it was just me.

 

[tompeters]

I work with many different partners. As has been said some work and some don't. I have had many meetings when I think working in partnership with someone is going to be great and then nothing comes of it, however on the other hand I have had very successful ones. It takes a bit of time to work well, developing trust and good communication between both parties.