When I look at what is propelling my business and my own energy these days, it's clearly the alliances I am creating that are the juice. Though I'm very focused on achieving the goals I've set for my own business, I find that energy grows exponentially when the effect of adding my services to the offering of another business results in success for them.
The collaboration makes it fun and the business impact for my alliance partner makes it hugely intrinsically rewarding for me. And somewhere along the way, it also fuels revenues.
Not bad for a little relationship-building with a dash of creative insight on where such alliances might best be found.
I recently picked up a book, SmartMatch Alliances, by Judy Feld and Ernest Oriente, which offers a win-win approach to growing your business. The strategy involves teaming with a non-competitive partner who is offering products or services to the same clients, customers, and prospects you want to attract. It's an easy-to-read primer for identifying and establishing powerful alliances. For those of you who are looking at such opportunities for yourselves, I expect you'll find it to be a helpful read.
Lately I've been having a ball coaching other coaches and entrepreneurs in building their own businesses using the Developing Innovative Alliances tm model I've created. The model takes clients through a series of questions to uncover the best place to start. So thrilling to help people peel back the onion and find the relationships that are under their noses! To hear a client discovering what they uniquely know and how their particular combination of expertise can leverage other businesses takes my heart rate up a few notches. I especially love seeing an individual shift from being completely stuck by what's next for marketing and growing their business to discovering the simplicity of the alliance that will work for them.
It's the ripple effect outward that is so satisfying for me.
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