Strategic Partnerships and How to Build Them!

Established & Growing Businesses, Strategy
strategic partnerships

Strategic partnerships are critical to any small business’ success. Whether your small business is for profit or non-profit, developing solid partnerships is a good use of time and resources.

Watch our Building Strategic Partnerships webinar to learn:

  1. Whether you need to build a partnership
  2. How to determine who of your potential partners are the best to approach about joining forces
  3. How to determine when you are ready to form the partnership
  4. The secrets to maintaining a healthy partnership.

You’re best served by slowly walking through the above stages, paying special attention to the last one.  Keeping your strategic partnership healthy and happy is very important!

When Do You Need to Build a Strategic Partnership?

Consider partnering with someone else when:

  1. They can provide a service or product that is an adjacency to those that you provide
  2. The partnership reduces your risk
  3. Their service or product could add customer value to your offering
  4. Partnering up could help you (and them, ideally!) grow at a faster rate. 

Do you see how partnering with someone could be the best thing for your small business?

What Makes a Good Partner?

Evaluate your potential partners carefully, as you’re trusting them with your precious business! A good partner should:

  1. Need you as much as you need them!
  2. Have leaders that get along with you, and a similar business structure
  3. Have a similar corporate structure
  4. Leave you with a good “gut feel”.

After you meet with a potential partner, ask yourself whether you could, with the right assurances in place, trust them with your vital business information and whether you have confidence in their ability to do what they say they will. You should have both trust and confidence to proceed.

Maintaining Healthy Strategic Partnerships 

Nuture your partnerships to keep them healthy and of maximum benefit to all parties involved by:

  1. Doing planning sessions with your partners at least quarterly
  2. Blending your tools, processes, and technology when possible
  3. Communicating regularly
  4. Determining how all parties involved enjoy the benefits and assume the costs involved in partnering.

Partnerships have perks, so keep them healthy! Email Carla at [email protected] or Sarah at [email protected] with your comments or questions. 

Did you enjoy this webinar? Check out the others on our YouTube channel!

 

 

 

Succession Planning for Small Business

Established & Growing Businesses, Finance & Accounting, Regulations & Legal, Strategy, , , ,

Succession planning is all about planning your exit strategy and maximizing the value that the small business owner receives for their effort (which often amounts to years and decades of work).

It also protects the small business owner, family, and the business from any risk.

Learn the process and your options in 20 minutes!

Contact the Expert
Mike Hook
[email protected]

SEO 2015 and Beyond

Established & Growing Businesses, Marketing & Branding, Technology & Online, , , , , , , , ,

Search Engine Optimization keeps changing! Small business owners need to keep on top of this to make sure that their small business is found online.

There are some significant changes that happened in early 2015 that you should take note of right now!

Watch this less than 20 minute video to learn everything that you need to know now.

Contact the Expert
Allan Pollett
[email protected]
www.allanpollett.com

Writing a Small Business Contract

Established & Growing Businesses, Regulations & Legal, , ,

Small business owners need to know how to protect themselves. A contract is not designed for when the two parties agree, but for any potential time when they don’t agree. That is the key!

In this 25 minute video we focus on sales and vendor contracts, but contract best practices in general. What are some of the clauses and what should be paid attention to? The specific clauses that we walk through are;

1. Parties of a contract
2. Description of the product or scope of services
3. Fees and charges
4. Tax responsibility
5. Rejection or acceptance of the product
6. Warranty period and exclusions
7. Payment terms, due date, interest rates
8. Customer promises
9. Vendor promises
10. Limitation of liability
11. Indemnities
12. Dispute resolution mechanism

Contact the Expert

If you have more questions and need more specifics, please contact Rajah Lehal directly!
[email protected]

Business Clarity Questions for Small Business

Established & Growing Businesses, Management & Human Relations, Strategy, , , , ,

The New Year is a great time to plan to ramp up your business.

Getting ready for 2015 involves getting your business ready with a solid foundation to move forward. Your foundation is based on answering these 7 critical questions.

In 20 minutes, walk through the business clarity questions and answer them for your business. Make your 2015 more impactful!

Contact the Expert

Charles McFarland
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.charlesmcfarland.ca
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coachingbusinessandartsleaders
Twitter: https://twitter.com/charlesmcf

SBS Clarity 14 Jan 2015

Hiring for Newbies

Established & Growing Businesses, Management & Human Relations, , , , , ,

Hiring is an exciting time for small business owners. It means that you are growing. And if you keep on reaching your targets and exceeding your targets, this is a natural next step in your business.

This video will help you overcome many of the challenges and pitfalls that normally occur through the hiring process, plus it will give you some bonus tips.

Topics covered include;
– fears surrounding hiring
– the total costs of hiring
– the total costs of firing
– top mistakes to avoid
– how & where to post your job posting
– how to screen resumes and top things to look for
– importance of pre screening and how to do it
– interviews and how to identify liars
– reference checks
– why will recruits sign up and stay with an organization

Contact The Expert
Meredith Arnot
[email protected]

Guaranteed Better Than The Rest

Established & Growing Businesses, Management & Human Relations, Strategy, , , , ,

Differentiating your small business and continuing to improve your business are two key pieces of being better than the rest.

But how do you get this in motion? Where do you start?

In 15 minutes we walk through two key objectives;
1. Ensuring that you are making time to work on your business rather than in it
2. Outlining 5 key ways to differentiate your business and how to do this

Contact the Expert

Eloise Pasianotto
www.effectiveprofessionalconsulting.com

Small Business Finance 101

Established & Growing Businesses, Finance & Accounting, , , , , , ,

What you don’t know when it comes to finance, can hurt you!
 
Understanding some basic finance models can help you make more objective decisions. This helps you avoid emotional decisions that often are the wrong decisions for your business.
 
The concepts that are walked through in this 30 minute video are;
 
1. Break Even Analysis
2. Basic Financial Ratios
3. Weighted Averages
4. Decision Making Trees
5. Net Present Value
 
By understanding the basics of these tools and when to consider using them, you have more tools in your toolbox as a small business owner.
 

 
Contact The Expert
[email protected]

Need more help on finance? Let us know what else you’d like to see at [email protected]

How To Set Up An Ecommerce Website

Established & Growing Businesses, Start Ups, Technology & Online, , , , , , , ,

If you aren’t online, then you are missing out on business.

Especially with the advances, there are some really easy ways to get started. But there are also some complexities that will creep up depending on how you are planning on setting it up.

Some things that will help you figure out what platform and set up that you need for your ecommerce site are:

1. How many products are you selling?
2. What type of products are you selling?
3. How many places are you shipping from?
4. How many places are you shipping to?
5. How many states, provinces, and countries are you shipping to?
6. How many transaction do you have?

Go through the main points of what you need to consider. See some of the options out there. And learn what to look out for.

Contact the Expert

Kagan Mustafa
[email protected]