EDITORIAL FEATURE
Choosing the Right Partner
Connie Barnaba
Y
ou’ve already done everything you can
to increase business efficiency, and, just
when your competitive advantage is assured by your new capability allowing
your customers to transact business online, another business you’ve never heard of announces a partnership with one of your strongest
competitors. With a bigger competitor on the
scene, there’s no escaping the fact that keeping
your customers and growing your business will
require you to take on a partner. It’s the first
time you’ve given any serious consideration to
sharing control of your business. It’s a high-risk
proposition and you don’t know who you can
trust. The theme to “Star Trek” starts playing
softly in your mind as you begin to ponder going were no man has gone before. And then the
music abruptly stops. You remember a list of
very good reasons you’ve never gone there.
Choosing a partner can seem like an overwhelming decision. First, there’s the challenge
of designing a business strategy that differentiates your business from the other consumer
options in your target market – figuring out
what product or service or pricing will deliver
more value to your current customers and attract new customers. After you have a strategy on paper, there’s the process of determining
the strengths and weaknesses of that strategy.
A new strategy is of negligible value if 20 other businesses can “copy it” capitalizing on your
hard work and robbing you of your competitive
advantage. This may suggest you need a partner that is willing to an exclusive relationship.
When you are confident you have the right
strategy, the search begins for a partner that is “a
good fit” in terms of size and experience. “Good
fit” is usually defined by what you’re looking for
in a strategic partner. It may be that a smaller
partner with a great product or service but with
less experience in your market fits the defini32 SMALL BUSINESS TODAY MAGAZINE [ OCTOBER 2015 ]
Choosing a partner can seem like
an overwhelming decision. First, there’s
the challenge of designing a business
strategy that differentiates your business
from the other consumer options in
your target market – figuring out what
product or service or pricing will deliver more
value to your current customers and
attract new customers. After you have a
strategy on paper, there’s the process of
determining the strengths and
weaknesses of that strategy.
tion if you are willing to provide training and increase the partner’s business revenues by exposure to your customers. It may be that another
established business in the same market with a
highly complementary product or service and
clients that would double the size of your client base would be “a good fit.” Regardless of the
strategy, in seeking a first-time partner, it’s always better to “test the waters” before making a
full commitment. This could mean teaming up
on one or two projects to see whether a strategy that works on paper works when it is “reality-tested.” Avoid partnering with any business
whose financial strength is significantly greater
than your own. Unless your business strategy involves becoming a reseller or selling your
business as you exit, it’s never a good idea to
team up with a stronger partner, exposing your
business “know how” without any f ] \