Why you need partnerships to grow your business

As business leaders and entrepreneurs there’s one thing that remains constant all year around – the need for growth and development, regardless of what’s “trending”. As people who know me well know I have always been passionate about partnerships. I even created several businesses in the UK centred around partnerhsips. It was therefore logical that I would be interested in “Progressive Partnerships: The Future of Business,” by Callum Laing. It’s a pretty bold title, and this is what I found.

The Need to Stay Relevant

An entrepreneur myself, the book struck a chord as it spoke about growing businesses and how to achieve it. The global HQof my company Black Marketing - enabling LinkedIn for you is based here in Singapore, and as most are aware, it is a hub for entrepreneurship and start-ups.

Almost 99% of the business landscape here is driven by the SMEs – it makes sense that in order to keep it thriving, businesses (both local and foreign) are able to receive grants and other sources of funding. Starting a business here is easy – all you need is the internet, a credit card and a registered company name. The trick is successful sustainability. So how can you go about achieving it?

Credibility is Key

Credibility, reputation, standing… whatever you call it, it is vital to business owners. The minute your name is mud because you provided a faulty product or lousy service, you can watch revenue go out the door. It’s why I strive to keep cordial relations with everyone I’ve met – be it an ex-employer, employee or even a vendor. I have for example never disconnected with anyone on LinkedIn no matter if I have been suing them or i fired them or just fell out with them. It's business not personal. 

In my line of business, we optimise the power of LinkedIn for you, so we understand the importance of creating the right connections and leaving the right impressions. I ensure that we train and teach our team to ensure that we deliver a quality service which is why we are able to charge premium rates for our niche service.

In the context of staying relevant and building a sustainable business, credibility goes beyond just ensuring your customers or clients are happy. It opens up opportunities for other businesses (or business owners) who may be interested in a collaboration or partnership with you. As the adage goes, “Be careful of the company you keep,” and the application in the business-world is just as relevant. Whether you’re starting out or been in the arena for quite a while, your brand image will suffer if you link up with the wrong business partner.

However, for those who are new, gaining this credibility can be hard going, as it takes time to build that relationship; you wind-up in the credibility paradox where you know having great partnerships can help build your credibility, but as you don’t have that solid perceived value yet, getting into these partnerships is difficult.

Building Partnerships

As evidenced in the title, Callum makes a bold claim that “Progressive partnerships are the future of business,” with which I’m inclined to agree as I come across a lot of it every day. In fact, I could almost equally claim that the foundation of my business is built around this principle – making the right connections (via LinkedIn) is akin to making the right partnerships - its not what you know it's who you know, as I wrote in an earlier blog. 

Touted as the most successful B2B social media network, especially in terms of monetisation, there’s a reason people are willing to pay to be connected to the right people and have their content shared and seen among them, socially selling, socially connecting, content marketing and soft sell not hard sell are all things that you can do if you have partnered with the right people on LinkedIn.

The world has become far more technologically advanced and populated than anyone could have ever envisioned. What it means for everybody is that there are more resources and opportunities than ever, and increased connectivity means finding and reaching out to someone relevant halfway across the globe, is as easy as calling up your neighbour. Networking has never been made simpler, and business leaders such as Callum and myself make it even more convenient.

Partnerships allow you to bring together the right people and resources to build things together at a faster pace. Going at it alone would take you years to build up organically and not always successfully. The premise for progressive partnerships can be broken down into two main parts:

1. Everyone needs something
2. The partnership is a stepping stone on to the next one

Once you’re able to build that momentum in garnering partnerships, your business will grow exponentially.

Of course, there are several other elements and steps involved, and Callum goes on to speak about building the “Value ladder” for your business, drawing real life case studies from his years of experience. All of which outline his three core beliefs in terms of providing information, connections and entertainment. But rather than spoil it for you and lay it all out here, I suggest you grab a copy for yourself and take your first step towards a progressive partnership.

If you would like to buy the book you can do so here.

If you would like a free synopsis you can here.