Working Together To Create More

Building others up in the world of business

Now more than ever we are taught to have a mentality of “us first.”

Especially in the business world, growing up we are told that the world is competitive and in order to make it through the ranks we simply have to do what we have to do in order to climb to the top. Very rarely are we told to allow others to help us grow or to allow others to let us help them grow.

With small businesses collaboration can be an incredible tool for creating a customer base. If you are able to find a similar creator, company or business you are both willing to give something of value then a tradeoff can be one of the best decisions you can make.

Though it may seem difficult to completely understand how to integrate another brand into marketing without losing sight of your brand first, creating business relationships can ultimately expand both of your bases.

One of the simplest ways to include similar companies within your business scope is to reach into the social media sphere. While this may seem like a basic response, social media is where a large majority of advertising and branding takes place nowadays. Utilizing your feeds and promoting a culture of community can only bring in more customers and allow a more inclusive feeling to take over your brand.

While it may seem nerve-wracking at first to reach out to others in the same creative sphere, you will never know if you never try.

Find companies that share your values and promote your ideals. Once you have found similarities in brands, send out a quick email and work through collaboration ideas that would work for both of your brand personalities.

If you sell clothing, accessories, home decor or any kind of physical product, consider doing a product collaboration. If you are a marketing business, perhaps doing a social media shout out of smaller brands that you think are doing great work within their sphere of the market could be an amazing way to help out smaller creators as well as create a network of individuals who all share a common goal. If the partner brand has a well known following or even somewhere around your own level of exposure, you are both gaining from the experience and opening the doors to new opportunities.

However, collaboration does not just have to come from those who sit at exactly the same spot in their business journey as you. While it may seem that as a small business owner yourself you should only strive for equality or above, working with smaller creators can have benefits of its own. Often smaller creators will have a much more niche audience and can allow you to diversify your customer base in a way that may have not been possible with a much larger creator who has a much broader spectrum of individuals watching the brand.

While working with other companies is a great way to help expand your own business as well as others, there are always a couple guidelines to follow when deciding with whom to collaborate.

Always make sure that the company is reputable and has good reviews. You don’t want to get stuck working with a company that has a bad reputation that you were not aware of because you didn’t do a background check. Also, make sure the brand actually fits somewhere within your net of business. Though some brands may reach out and seem like amazing opportunities, if the product they are selling or service they are providing is not something that would be of use to your own customers then it is probably best to move onto the next offer.

Collaboration today can sometimes be looked down upon in our ever expanding individualistic society. However, it is important to remember that every new creator has an important role to play in their business and we can only grow ourselves by helping others grow as well.