Collaborations make small businesses greater than the sum of their parts

When best selling small business author and global presenter Andrew Griffiths ran a marketing company, one of the most successful promotional activities he took part in was a partnership with an accounting business in his local area.

“I’d arrange to do a presentation around marketing and the accounting company would invite their clients,” Griffiths says.

“It wasn’t out of the ordinary to get between 50 and 100 people turn up.”

The benefit to the accounting firm, he says, was that it was a value-add to its clients.

“And the obvious advantage to me was access to lots of new potential clients,” he says.

“It was the perfect win/win.”

Partnerships: Better than good business

A collaboration or partnership can be a potent tool for a small business, says Hunter Leonard, CEO and Chief Strategy Officer of Blue Frog Marketing.

“I once organised a program called Community Connections for a real estate business in Melbourne,” Leonard, also author of business book Red giraffe: How to scale new heights and reach new goals, says. [NO FOLLOW LINK]

“The agents went to sports clubs and said, ‘We’ll give you $500 cash every time one of your members sells their house through us, and $150 every time they rent their house through us’.”

It was a simple partnership that was easily measured by both parties, Leonard says, and it turned into a multi-year relationship that benefitted the agency and the clubs.

A year-long program developed, including awards events run by the agency for the clubs, cheque presentations on sports fields and pizza nights at local restaurants for teams and volunteers.

It created relationships with benefits for the businesses and community.

“It was about doing good in the community,” he says.

“It was very good for business, but it went way beyond the idea of making money.”

The role of accountants in building alliances, partnerships and community

Local accounting businesses would do well to consider themselves as introducers, Leonard says.

Local accountants already have relationships with countless local businesses, he says. They know who is trustworthy, reliable and good at what they do.

The obvious next step is to use this knowledge to help network those clients, so the businesses can collectively become greater than the sum of their parts.

“On every accountant’s books there is a number of businesses and people that could collaborate,” Leonard says.

“It might not be for extra revenue for the accountant. It might be just that they help their small business clients do better, they help them become more profitable and stay in business longer.”

Organising a brunch every so often, for example, would bring customers together for a chat about how they might create partnerships or collaborations, he says.

“The whole conversation has to be around how we can help each other do well,” Leonard says.

“We’ve probably all been awake at night trying to work out how we are going to pay our staff or pay the bills. We understand each other, so where are the opportunities for co-promotion?”

Collaboration: Only limited by imagination

There are simple partnerships that work on a small scale for a one-off opportunity or a limited period – featuring the other business in a newsletter, packaging complementary products or services as a nearby hairdresser and beauty therapist might – and there are more creative ones.

Griffiths has been thrilled by the imagination business owners have shown in terms of collaborations.

“I’ve done some work with a small airline called Pawmobile that specialises in flying pets from Melbourne to Tasmania,” he says.

“It uses light aircraft and fills them with dogs, cats, birds, goats and any other critters that need to travel in a safe, more animal-friendly way.”

Pawmobile, Griffiths says, is currently talking to petfood company Lyka about opportunities to collaborate – leveraging each other’s strengths to fill their own gaps.

“Pawmobile needs more exposure and Lyka needs more good-news stories to share with its 300,000-strong community. So, Pawmobile is asking Lyka to supply its in-flight catering and, in turn, tell the Lyka community about what Pawmobile does. No money needs to swap hands; this is a great marketing partnership.”

Then there’s the business coach using Griffiths’ book Someone has to be the most expensive, why not make it you? [NO FOLLOW LINK] to break through to potential clients in the field of plastic surgery.

At trade shows, the business coach hands Griffiths’ book to surgeons.

“He uses my book as a gift to get the attention of prospective clients – this opens the door for him to meet with them and talk about coaching,” Griffiths says.

“I win because he’s bought about 1,000 books from me, and he wins by having a great ice breaker to give him access to potential clients.”

Accountants should broker these relationships, Leonard says.

“Accountants are professional advisers. And survey after survey tells us they are highly trusted. They’re in the perfect position to create powerful partnerships for themselves and their clients.”

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