Now, more than ever, businesses should be looking to develop strategic partnerships.



Strategic partnerships are developing relationships with other businesses, with the objective of pooling resources, in order for both partners obtaining more business or both partners cutting costs. For example, let’s look at the food industry. They're all different types of food vendors, but let me use a distributor of frozen cookie dough and a distributor of frozen appetizers. These are clearly non-competitive entities. Both of these companies need frozen storage and more business. Why can't these two companies form a strategic partnership and share offsite storage cost or one company sublet frozen storage to the other?

If one of the companies already has onsite frozen storage, both of these companies see accounts that can use both products, so why can't they share leads and a finder's fee would go to the referring company? Both companies use office supplies, so once again, to obtain bigger discounts both companies could pool their resources. Does one company have the financial resources to buy equipment that both companies can use? The bottom line is that the possibilities in strategic partnerships are endless.

Even though you have to think outside the box, the result is always a win-win. More importantly, it can have a positive impact on your business and in some cases save it.