I love a good collaboration. I’ve worked with so many amazing people in my life. It’s not only helped me grow as a person, but it’s also helped my business grow by leaps and bounds.
Recently, I was with a bunch of teenage girls — we were volunteering with the Refugee Service of Texas to help set up some apartments. The positive attitude and enthusiasm of these incredible teenagers were contagious. One of my favorite quotes of the day that I kept hearing over and over was, “Teamwork makes the dream work!” Don’t you love that? It’s so true!
Collaboration is such a powerful tool for all small business owners, regardless of the industry you’re in. It’s the connections you form with others, and the different ways you collaborate with those people, that’ll help you grow your business to new levels. If you’re not convinced collaboration is really worth the time and effort, I’ve put together five reasons you should care about collaboration in your small business.
1. Collaboration Will Inspire You
It’s easy to get into a routine during the day-to-day hustle of your business. Often, you forget there may be a different or better way to do something. We know only what we know, but when we collaborate with others, we can learn about new tools or new methods that can save us time and money. It’s so beneficial to spend time with like-minded entrepreneurs to learn. Every time I work with another entrepreneur, I learn something new and feel inspired to try new techniques.
You can spend hours reading blogs, magazines, and books for inspiration, but if you’re not communicating, sharing, and discussing that information, you’re missing out. It’s so important to get outside your own head to get a fresh perspective, push you out of your comfort zone, trigger your creativity, and learn from others who have valuable experience and knowledge. Take the time to seek out collaborations that can be inspiring and help you think in a new way.
2. Collaboration Helps You Grow Your Network
The most successful entrepreneurs are always seeking out new people and building a list of people who inspire them and would be great collaborations. Being successful in business includes consistently making connections and cultivating relationships. If you’re networking with the same group of people over and over again, you’re missing out on some really great opportunities.
Every contact you make might not result in collaboration, but you’ll expand your network and grow as a person. I recently held a retreat, and it was with such an amazing group of people. There were coaches there, photographers, real estate agents, and more. One of the attendees made the comment at the beginning of the retreat that it was such an interesting mix of people. At the end of the retreat, she pulled me aside and told me she got so much out of the retreat because it was such a diverse group. So remember that a good collaboration doesn’t always look the way you expect it to look.
3. Collaboration Is Educational
One of the biggest benefits of collaboration is the opportunity for learning. In fact, every interaction you have with someone outside your immediate circle can teach you something valuable. Some of the most successful collaborations involve combining two very different skill sets, perspectives, and strengths to the table. When this happens, you’re guaranteed learning opportunities.
4. Collaboration Can Help You Save Money
Many collaborative relationships involve combining ideas and strategies; hands-on work; and, sometimes, expenses. If you collaborate with another business and part of the terms involves sharing development and marketing expenses, you can double your budget while reducing costs.
You’ll be getting a bigger bang for your buck than you would be if you were using only your own resources. With that said, make sure you set good boundaries and all the parties involved are equally invested in the success of the collaboration.
There’s nothing worse than a collaboration in which you do all the work, take all the risks, and don’t get the same in return.
5. Collaboration Solves Problems
There’s a reason crowdsourcing is so popular: There’s power in numbers. One person is good, but two or three or more people can take good to great!
Think about the last difficult problem you faced in your business. When we get stumped, most of us immediately go to a partner, a mentor, or another trusted resource who acts as a sounding board and helps us work through the problem. The harder the problem is to solve, the more we can benefit from getting the input of someone outside the situation. When you add new viewpoints and experiences to the mix, you’ll be surprised how much you can accomplish.
There are so many benefits to working together on a collaboration. You have great support, but you also learn so much when it’s done correctly.
There are so many options and opportunities to help others and help your own business grow through collaborations. The good news is that small business collaboration doesn’t necessarily require a significant time or financial investment if you think creatively.
Tips for Collaborations That Grow Your Business
Collaboration is essential for all types of businesses. There are so many ways to collaborate, and it’s essential that brands try it as much as possible.
I think when people are thinking about business collaboration, it’s often easy to get overwhelmed or confused as to whom to collaborate with and what to collaborate on.
Let’s take a deep dive into collaborations. I want to share some ideas that will help skyrocket business growth along the way!
Collaborate With Other Brands
Collaborating with other brands is a great way to get your content seen by a new audience. Remember that the brand shouldn’t be your competition; instead, they should have the same ideal client. Here are some ideas for doing brand collaborations.
- Cross-Promote Brands on Social Media
Cross marketing is one of the best things you can do for your business. It’s a great opportunity to quickly and easily reach another audience. It’s also an advantage for your brand to share third-party content. It builds brand loyalty and keeps followers on your social media pages for longer.
Here are a few good examples of cross-promotion:
- If you’re a coach and work with helping online coaches create funnels, you can team up and collaborate with a Facebook ad agency.
- If you’re a wedding photographer, plan a styled shoot once a quarter. Collaborate with wedding gown boutiques, florists, make-up artists, and wedding planners. Create an opportunity that allows you to grow as a photographer and create relationships that help your business grow through referrals.
- If you help organize people’s houses, you can collaborate with real estate agents.
- Collaborate With Influencers
Collaborating with influencers isn’t just for big brands. Although some businesses might be reluctant to work with influencers, many businesses have gotten great results. Here are a few advantages of working with influencers.
- Their readers/viewership trusts them and often looks up to them.
- Their readers/viewership often wants the exact product the influencer uses.
- They’re professionals at creating content and they do the work themselves, meaning that all the marketing needs to do is discuss ideas.
- They often act as the middleman in building real relationships between brands and audiences.
- They’re a lot cheaper than other traditional forms of advertising.
- They can grow a brand’s social following by tagging them in their posts.
When using influencer marketing and influencer collaboration ideas, it’s essential to choose the right kind of influencer. It’s best to look at engagement over numbers — 1,000 engaged viewers is better than 100,000 non-engaged viewers — and the viewership has to be one that matches your brand.
Influencers must be paid or at least compensated. Sometimes if they’re smaller, they’ll accept a free product, but brands should generally plan on paying out if they’re after quality content.
- Write Guest Posts
Guest posting on blogs has all the benefits of posting on social media. Your brand gets a shout-out to their audience, and you could get new customers because of it.
In addition, it’s great for SEO and most websites allowing guest posts will let you earn a link back to your website, helping you to be found in Google searches.
And, of course, you can do it the other way around: Get free content for your blog or website by allowing guest posters.
- Start a Podcast
Starting a podcast is a great small business collaboration idea to connect with other people in your niche and with those who have similar interests. While not every brand has a podcast and it’s not something that’ll immediately drive sales, podcasting is a fantastic way to network and build connections, as well as present yourself as a brand that really cares about the work that it does.
Having a popular podcast will also skyrocket brand loyalty, as people will be constantly tuning in to hear what you have to say about different matters.
- Create an Interview Series
Starting an interview series on your blog, Instagram, Facebook group, or YouTube account is a great idea for creating relationships with other businesses in your niche.
You’ll get great content for your chosen platform, and people will be happy for the exposure. To gain more benefits, you could ask anyone you interview if they’re willing to interview you in return.
- Go to Networking Events
By visiting networking events, you’ll get the chance to meet people in person. If you want to reach people to collaborate with, here’s your perfect opportunity. You’ll also get the chance to bounce ideas off of people and be inspired.
You can attend network events specific for networking, or what I think is more effective is getting involved in your community through volunteer opportunities.
Collaboration in action is a win-win. If you haven’t done a collaboration before, just do it. You have to start somewhere. I promise you will learn as you go. If you’ve already done a collaboration, push yourself to do more. You’ll see the benefits for sure.
If you’re hesitant about doing your first collaboration, don’t worry — I got you. I’ve included my collaboration guide in the show notes! Grab yourself a copy, and let the collaborations begin!
I hope you found all this info helpful!
