Alliance Building in a Sharing Economy

Alliance development and management used to be simple. Find the group of potential allies you wanted, find where they meet, and get involved there. In the sharing economy, allies have become easier to find and encounter, but harder to know. With mega-gurus like Richard Branson, Elon Musk, and Daymond John taking to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social media sites, alliances bridge geographic and sociological boundaries. Linking and touching others has never been easier, but is that an alliance? Continue reading

Strategic Planning Must Include Important Strategic Alliances

A business’ growth to a higher level is often a perilous journey. From a start-up’s  first unsteady step into the business arena, through each acquisition and investment that follows, risks surround those bold enough to take on the challenges.

The foundation of the company is built on skills, capital, an idea and a vision. Often the starting team has some form of expertise in manufacturing, procurement, marketing, engineering or design. Continue reading

Helpful Tips To Maintain Strategic Alliances

In the business world, strategic alliances are vital towards success, but only if they are well maintained. On-going maintenance is critical; otherwise you end up with an alliance that hurts you, your business ally and your customers. However, with four simple steps you create an alliance that produces optimal results. Continue reading

3 Tips to Follow for Business Collaboration

Collaboration is a powerful tool in business. Many times your organization can collaborate with another business to produce amazing results that otherwise would not have been obtained. We will discuss 3 tips to follow when collaborating with another business:

Tip One: Open Communication is king. To be successful Continue reading

How Strategic Alliances Improved the Airlines Industry

There are many cases in which two competing companies would both be better off if they formed a strategic alliance. The companies in the alliance would still differentiate themselves, but at the same time, they’ve successfully removed a competitive threat. A situation like this, of course, depends on the companies and the industry, but it’s lesson can be applied to several other cases.

An Ivey Business Journal article discusses strategic alliances Continue reading

PC Tablet Manufacturer Enters United Arab Emirates via Strategic Alliance

In a recent announcement Simmtronics, the world’s third leading PC tablet manufacturer, and Jumbo Electronics, the leading distributor and retailer of IT and consumer electronics in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), have formed a strategic alliance to distribute PC tablets throughout the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Simmtronics’ motivation for penning the deal is an effort to remain true to its commitment to expand in to as many new markets as possible.

According to Chris Ruggeri, M&A services leader at Deloitte Financial Advisory Services, the recent decline in M&A activity Continue reading

Power Partners Create a Foundation for Businesses

Keeping a business growing requires thinking about unconventional solutions. Sometimes when seeking a solution, it takes an angle from the other side to give a clearer light on the problem. Being power partners with another business is a great strategy to give businesses a new look at common problems.

Power partners are a great way to secure a consistent revenue flow to insure continued success. Continue reading

3 Benefits of Joint Ventures

Launch a business from scratch with Joint Ventures (JV). Countless new business owners are launching new businesses using JV alone, proving to be the active element as to why they experienced success in their business. A partnership between two companies with similar assets is simply leveraged by a “joint venture.” When working through JV ventures, it is important to partner with them and not compete with them.

For instance, you may own a vitamin website and then contact the owner of a wellness website. See if you can leverage marketing your vitamins to the customers of their wellness site. They will say either “yes” or “no.” If the answer is “yes,” then it’s worth every effort when you start to build up your back office easily and experience rapid traffic and sales.

Most recently, Ford and GM have created a Joint Venture to develop new transmissions with 9 speeds for front week drive cars. They are jointly developing a new product for both companies and it won’t be in cars until 2016. Continue reading

Managing the Channels of distribution

Many manufactures do not sell directly to the end user. Between the manufacture and the user is usually a channel of distribution. They are essential to the success in any type of business. If you run a service business you need the supplies used that create the business, in which case you are a channel for the manufacturer or distribution of the supplies.

For instance, an HVAC company needs their air conditioners, heat units and service parts so the technicians can perform their job. The business maintains open channels for these items. Let’s face it, how would you react if the repair person fixing your air conditioner failed to have the proper parts with him or even at his shop?

Continue reading

A Strategic Alliance is NOT a Joint Venture

In a 2010 Inc. post, “How to Build Business Alliances,” I was surprised to read the very first line:

The basic logic of the strategic alliance – a joint venture between two companies – is often irresistible: It’s difficult to break into new markets, and a partnership can bring instant access to new customers. 

What? A strategic alliance is not a joint venture. Yes, a joint venture is technically a strategic alliance. However, the reverse is not true.

Specifically, a joint venture occurs when two companies invest finances to create a third, jointly owned company. Continue reading

Entrepreneurs Leading With Ideas

Many people think that being business entrepreneurs means you have a new exciting product to offer the world. That may be true in some cases but not in all. The dictionary defines an entrepreneur as a person who organizes and manages a business usually with considerable unique ideas, initiative and risk. Today’s entrepreneur thinks outside of the box. More and more business is becoming global. It is often the idea that is central to success. It is the idea about an old product that often launches a great business.

You do not have to invent a new mousetrap to become the king of pest control. If you have an idea on how to do it better, provide great service and make your customers happy then you are a potentially successful entrepreneur. You just have to take action. Continue reading

As A Small Business Owner, Why Is Tracking Sales Important?

As a small business owner, you may ask yourself why tracking sales is important. You know the products that you offer, you know your budget, and your books balance at the end of every month. Why do you need to make the effort or invest in some type of software that will allow you to track your sales? This article will discuss the importance of that and more.

Selling Products Continue reading

Strategic Alliances: Creating and Maintaining

Sustaining strategic alliances for success requires short-term planning and planning over the long-term. You need to determine how to best use your available resources to ensure you have the infrastructure in place. An article posted on the Financial Post talks about building and maintaining strategic alliances.

“As companies enter into an array of alliances, the potential for achieving benefits can increase dramatically.”

A portfolio of alliances Continue reading

How Value Added Resellers (VAR) Can Help You Find More Hours in a Day

As an Entrepreneur what is the one resource you wish you more of right now? I’d be willing to bet the answer is most likely time. If you’re running low on energy there’s always more coffee, right? But, if you find you just don’t have enough time in the day to get everything done what do you do? You can’t add more hours to the clock.

So how do you free up more of your time? Continue reading

Entrepreneurs: Moving Beyond Organic Growth

When it comes to their growth strategy, most entrepreneurs have some variation on the same theme:  produce a good or service,  market it, and supply that good or service to as many people in as big of a geographical area as possible.  It’s called organic growth, and it’s a great strategy–but it also has its limits. There is a point in the lifecycle of every business where the company has three choices for continued growth:  build, borrow, or buy.  A new book out Continue reading

Entrepreneurs: One with the Spirit of Change

There seems to be a growing trend. The number of entrepreneurs is increasing. People, whose life are in an upheaval, discover that their real passions become the fuel that drives their work. This work becomes their source of revenue. There are several reasons for this:

  • Jobs, thought to be stable careers, are no longer jobs to be counted on for life. Continue reading

Collaboration in Small Business: Who Needs It?

Chances are the answer to the above question is easy: we all do. However, what exactly is the benefit of having a business collaborator? Many of us just don’t like other people getting involved in our own business. Too many people having a say in how a business is run can slow efficiency and even detract from business quality. This does not include any personal frustrations from working with people with whom we simply do not like. But small business collaboration brings advantages to the table that make it worth the trouble. That’s why it’s so important to choose your business collaborators carefully.

A business collaboration is a relationship two or more businesses have with one another that benefit all involved. Continue reading

The Best Sales Strategy: Fix the Customer’s Problem

Whenever you go into a sales meeting, you are on the spot. Your goal is to explain why your prospect should use your company’s product (or service). The best way to convince them is through demonstration.

Demonstrating what your product can do for them is a great sales strategy. However, it’s even better if you can demonstrate how your product will fix this customer’s current problem. What is the pain that the customer is experiencing?

Defining the Customer’s Problem 

Your goal is to help your customer. Your product must fulfill a need. Hopefully, this need has previously gone unfulfilled. But what exactly is that need and how will your product help?  Continue reading

3 Questions to Develop Your Channels of Distribution Strategy

When developing a new product or service, one of the first things to consider is how to get it to the end-user. Deciding on what channels of distribution to use is a very important business decision that must be made correctly. Using the wrong channels of distribution costs you money and depletes the value of your product.

1) How does the end-user want to buy?

To answer this, you’ll need to understand your customers and your relationship to them. How does your customer prefer to buy this product? Will they need customization or regular service? Maybe your customer needs other products or services to be able to use your product. Continue reading

Joint Ventures Must Be Mutually Beneficial

It’s hard to imagine peanut butter’s success without jelly and vice versa.  Without the unique qualities of both these elements, the PB&J would have its anonymity.  Like this staple sandwich, so many businesses are also making successful names for themselves through their wise joint ventures with other companies.

Choosing just the right partner, however, is just as important as selecting that special someone in your personal life.  If you don’t find a genuine, natural fit, it could be disastrous to both your companies.

So, how then do you make a joint venture beneficial to your company?   Continue reading