Strategic Alliances for Small Business

When I left Corporate America my principal job was managing strategic alliances. I learned a lot of hard lessons about alliances at that level which can easily apply to the small and medium business market. Most businesses can benefit from strategic alliances but they have to be managed carefully. I would even go so far as to say that most businesses should have alliances. If you don’t, there is a good chance you are trying to be all things to all clients and while that might bring some money in the door in the short term it is as sure a road failure as trying to make everyone happy all of the time. 

At my technology consulting company, BlackBox Technologies, we have partnered with Wendistry, LLC, a marketing and management consulting firm. While we are tech savvy and have a good working knowledge of marketing online, crafting the overall marketing picture is outside of our expertise. If you have in house marketing and need the “online” side of that, which is really a different animal than just “marketing,” then call us. If you need a complete marketing solution, call us as well but we’re going to immediately engage Wendistry to help out. The point of all of that is to know your limitations, and where it makes sense for you to be able to bring skills outside of your expertise to bear for your clients, find partners or alliances. 

Finding good alliance partners is another matter. If you choose to seek out alliances or partnerships with other companies or independent consultants here are a few words of advice that might save you a lot of headache: 

1. Never forget: And alliance is like anyother relationship (including the personal kind). Companies have different personalities, different needs and different motivations. Make sure yours are aligned on behalf of your clients and be prepared to work on the relationship.
2. Do your due dilligence. Do it as if you were buying their company. Make sure they know their “stuff” and have a solid track record. The people you partner with must be those you can trust because they will interact with your clients. 
3. Each engagement should have ONE project leader. Not more, never less.
4. Put it in writing. An alliance agreement doesn’t have to be onerous but it should protect both sides and outline the relationship. Include an NDA and non-compete where applicable. Consider it a prenup, everyone acts in good faith but if things go bad or just need to end (some alliances just run their course) then it keeps things cleaner.
5. Don’t pay each other or engage in kickbacks for opportunities. If you are going to be able to look your client straight in the eye and tell them that you are objective about who you work with and are acting in their best interest, you can’t be taking money from a partner. If their part of the project costs more than yours so be it, don’t let greed get in the way of good decision making. You are doing your clients a favor by bringing a professional to the table where you can not do the job. The trade off should be that when they have clients who need your services they will call you. If they don’t then get out, it’s not a partnership. BTW, that doesn’t mean your partners can’t hire you to work for them. 
6. Trust but verify. The relationship should be reciprocal and work should flow both ways. There is also no problem in having multiple partners in once space. But if you do, be very clear who your “primary” partner is and who gets next dibs if the primary is unavailable. I was in the position of being a secondary alliance more than once and we still stayed busy. 
7. Above all work together and genuninely try to make it a win for everyone involved. If you don’t the alliance will be short lived, bitter and could end up in lawsuits.