When you first start out in the realm of business ownership and management, you may think that it’s you against the world. But chances are that before long you will find that you start collaborating with third parties to make your life a whole lot easier. Here are two different types of collaboration that you might want to consider implementing into your small business’ practice!
Direct Collaboration
Now, direct collaboration can work in a whole host of ways. If you are a commercial brand providing products for retail, you can meld together aspects of another popular brand and your products to create something that will appeal to a wider audience. If you are looking to advertise these products to particular areas of the consumer market or particular demographics of the consumer market, you can collaborate with social media influencers, who will post your products in their Instagram feeds, on their Facebook pages, or vocally praise them through Twitter. If you are a more service based company, you could take inspiration from the collaboration between two companies – Cerner and Lumeris – to create the Maestro Advantage scheme which has pushed both parties forward in their field. There are so many forms of direct collaboration out there that no matter what your company is creating or providing, there’s definitely a way that direct collaboration can hold potential to great things looking forward!
Outsourcing
While everyone tends to first consider direct collaboration when thinking on the subject, there’s actually a more commonly practiced form of collaboration out there for small businesses – outsourcing. Outsourcing is a relatively commonly employed business practice which involves the distribution of certain tasks to independent third parties outside of your company. Not only does this remove a huge workload from your shoulders, but it comes hand in hand with various other benefits too. Jobs can be completed faster, you can gain the expertise of people trained or educated in different areas to yourself, you can make use of other business’ resources and specialist equipment, and you don’t have the added responsibility of becoming an employer in the process! However, when you’re giving this kind of responsibility to an individual, agency, or company who lies outside of your own company’s jurisdiction, it’s not surprising that you’ll probably feel a bit wary when it comes to choosing the right person or group to carry out the job. After all, failures on their part will reflect badly on your company. So, make sure to look at the individual or company you’re considering outsourcing to’s reviews before making any agreements. If they have done a good job in their previous ventures, they should be happy to supply some positive feedback that they have been left from past collaborations. They should also have an extensive portfolio of their previous work.
As you can see, nine times out of ten, two heads are better than one. So, consider incorporating collaboration into your own small business practice to observe profitable results.