Did you know that you could even form a profitable business partnership with your competitors? Imagine your business growing in prospering in ways you didn’t think possible.

I recently attended a seminar on business partnership and it got me thinking about partnership for businesses -not legal partnership, but the general concept of partnership as applied to our customers, vendors, contractors, employees, investors, family members, and so on - anyone involved or affected by your business could be considered to be a partner of sorts.

I realized that if we could make them feel and/or act, like a partner in the business to some degree, that they would help us succeed in achieving our business vision.

Levels of Business Partnership

In the seminar we looked at three levels of Small Business Partnership:

1. Working towards a common goal - “useful” or “practical” business partnership; example: make 500 sales calls by the end of the year.
2. Working on carrying out a shared commitment - a “commitment” based general partnership; example: being committed to growing revenues
3. Working towards a shared vision, or inspiring possibility; example: being at ease with finances

Personally I find it hard to distinguish between the “goal”, “commitment” and “vision/possibility” unless I give it careful thought.  Here’s some clarification:

• A goal has conditions of completion; when these conditions are met, you can strike the goal from your list.  This isn’t true for the other two.
• An inspiring possibility is anything that really inspires you and “lights your fire”, but which hasn’t happened or doesn’t exist yet, except as a possibility.
• A vision is an ideal future scenario that motivates us to take action; basically an inspiring possibility which is a certain event, lifestyle, environment, or outcome.
• A commitment is an ongoing agreement of some kind, from which you can generate goals and actions that support and maintain it.  Commitments are best created based on an inspiring possibility or vision.  A commitment doesn’t have conditions of completion; a commitment can simply be dropped when it no longer serves any higher purpose.

When a business vision is no longer motivating, or an inspiring possibility is no longer exciting, they can leave behind “uninspiring commitments” which no longer have any “fire” or “juice”.

Watch out for these leftover uninspiring commitments - remember that a commitment can be abandoned at any time if it no longer serves any higher purpose towards your business partnership!

To end a commitment or abandon a goal, get in communication with anyone involved with that commitment and make an agreement with them so that your integrity is preserved. This includes you.

Generating Business Partnership

Business Partnership is generated when the parties involved realize that they are already partners. At that moment, helping the other person is helping you. Generating business partnership is about making people aware of the fact that you are, already partners at some level!

Typically when someone encounters you or your website, hears about your business from someone else, they probably won’t recognize that they have common goals, commitments, or shared visions with you. Your job as a marketer is to point this out to them at a level that makes sense for your target market. Creating a marketing plan based on business partnership would go as follows:

1. Draw a map of all the different groups that are related to your business
2. Identify a group you’d like to create a small business partnership with
3. Ask them (or someone who knows them well) about their goals, commitments, visions; also what kind of possibilities they are inspired by
4. Decide which of these you really share that have synergy with your business - be honest!
5. Mention these in your pitches, your web site, and other marketing messages
6. Where possible, discuss partnership with them and formally agree on your vision, commitments, and goals for the business

Mind mapping would be a great technique for this.  Our suggestion is to use mind mapping software.

Here are some brief examples of how other businesses create partnerships with the public.

• The iPhone creates partnership by fulfilling the possibility of excitement, joy, and play via the commitment to innovative and fun new technologies to play with.  It also fulfills a vision to have a useful computer you can fit in your pocket (if you have deep pockets …)  They communicate this by showing a lot of demo videos of all the fun ways that you can use the iPhone
• Vacation sites try to be your partner in seeking romance, adventure, and luxury.  They demonstrate a commitment to travel, affordable prices, convenience, and lots of options to choose from.  They attract their customers with images of sunset beaches, people doing fun activities, and luxurious hotel rooms
• Angel investors and venture capitalists always have a commitment to making a healthy multiple on their investments when the business is sold; however, I think they are often inspired by the possibility of ongoing excitement and drama as they ride the ups and downs of your business with you.
  If you were to engage your investors into the excitement of your business more, would that be a higher level partnership than simply transacting cash?  If they feel like a partner in the business they’ll also be more inclined to help out with additional financing

The Secret Sauce of a Business Vision

Designing messages around the visions and goals of our target market is nothing new, really.  We’re already bombarded with messages intended to excite us, to speak to our desires, and give the idea that consuming certain alchoholic beverages make us into witty pirates.  How can you stand out in this crowd?

What’s missing in most of these marketing messages is that they are completely false, fake, and inauthentic.  The only way to make those messages effective to spend a boatload of money playing them over and over until they insinuate themselves into the subconscious of the audience who are influenced by them without even knowing it.

However, as a small business, we don’t have boatloads of money, so we need a bit of “secret sauce” to get “bang for our buck”.  What could that be?  You guessed it - be authentically in partnership!

For instance if you’re a travel agent, be genuinely interested in creating fun, romance, and relaxation for your clients.

If you create a partnership with a service provider (an SEO consultant or an IT operations outsourcing company) where you are both interested in personal growth, swap tips on personal development amidst your other communications and you have a fulfilling partnership in addition to getting great service.

If you sell online accounting software, create a powerful relationship between small business owners and their finances.  We have done just that. By working with us we go out of our way to ensure your business vision, your inspiring possibilities and your commitment to your partners.

Try our thirty day no risk trial for our online accounting software today and let’s make this a profitable partnership for both us.

General Partnership Can Transform Your Business

General Partnership is a powerful force which I believe has the potential to transform your business.  Keep an eye out for ways to generate partnership with those around you, treat those around you as if they are already partners in what you are up to (hey, it might rub off an and you’ll get things done), and enjoy the benefits of being in a world where everyone is working together on common goals - yours!

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