Grow Your Business With Collaborations

When you’re an entrepreneur, you are doing everything in your business – from marketing and PR, to finance, HR and sales to operations, tech and IT. There is a lot that we need to get into place to build our businesses into the empire that we want them to eventually become.

We often hear from entrepreneurs that one of their biggest challenges is building their audience or clients/customers. Whether you’re an established business, or just starting out, a great way to do this is by collaborating with another business to grow your customer base together.

Why would you collaborate?
Businesses can sometimes be wary of collaborating with another business, especially if they are operating in similar areas. However, by working with another business you’re basically doubling up on your efforts. It gives you further reach and access to new audiences that you might not have had exposure to before. Your marketing efforts will be doubled, which means that your exposure will be increased. Collaborations will also give you more credibility as a business, and if planned and executed well, it will ultimately result in more sales.

 Where can you find a business to collaborate with?
We get asked this all the time. The idea of a collaboration is great, but so many people say that they just can’t find the right partner. Other say that because they are specifically B2B or B2C, or tech, or anything else… that it’s just not right for them. But in reality, no matter what you do, if you think creatively, there’s a business out there that you can collaborate with.

So where can you find the right businesses for you to collaborate with? Chances are you might already know businesses that would be a great fit for you to collaborate with. But if you don’t, there’s lots of places that you can look, including:

✨ Attending events such as an industry event or trade show
✨ Networking – as always the Female Fusion meet-ups are great for this, but there’s also the business councils and other business events that are put on too
✨ Showcase stalls at Female Fusion events – if you’re a member of the Fusion Circle these are free and a great way to talk about your business, or see other businesses that might have synergies with you
✨ Respond to requests for raffle prizes or goodie bags – talk to us at Female Fusion – we always have giveaways, or there could be other opportunities with other businesses or business groups too
✨ The Fusion Circle Facebook Group - if you’re a member – just do a post and ask
✨ Ask on your own social media, or research others on social media that might be a good fit
✨ Ask within your own social circle

Don’t be afraid to ask people, the worst they could say is no, but they best they could say is yes! Once you start collaborating with other businesses, you’ll see the opportunities that can open up.

Set your collab up for success
Once you find a business that you’d like to collaborate with, we always recommend that you are clear on:
✔️ Who is doing what
✔️ What you each of your businesses will get out of the collaboration
✔️ Deadlines
✔️ Deliverables
✔️ Costs – who will be paying for what
✔️ Who will be doing what to promote the collaboration
✔️ What happens if it goes wrong?
✔️ If you will be making money, who is collecting the money and how will the profits be divided

Always put this in writing so it’s clear for both parties. We recommend creating a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that clearly lays out each party’s responsibilities in your collaboration. If you’re a member of the Fusion Circle, we have a free template provided by Crimson Legal that you can use for your own collaborations. Simply log on to the Fusion Circle portal and download your copy.

If you’re not able to access the Fusion Circle template, you can ask a lawyer to create a template for your business that you can use.

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Collaboration over competition wins every time! We are always stronger together. Just like the African Proverb, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

If you’ve done a collaboration that’s worked in your business – tag us on Instagram and share it with us @femalefusionnetwork