It Takes Two - How to Cultivate Profitable Alliances
"Cross promoting with other businesses can give you a significant advantage over the competition, with many benefits and cost savings." -Heidi Richards-More and more competition in the marketplace is making it necessary for companies to find creative ways to connect with customers and prospects, to enhance brand identity and attract top-notch employees. In order to enhance competitiveness in today's marketplace, more and more companies are forming strategic alliances. Strategic alliances can maximize your position in the marketplace. When you learn how to leverage partnerships you increase your market share. It is also a very smart way to grow a small business.
Cross promoting with other businesses can give you a significant advantage over the competition with many benefits and cost savings.A strategic alliance is based on an arrangement between two companies to combine resource that will help both gain a greater share of the market. They are often formed when one business alone is unable to fill the gap in serving the needs of the marketplace. Forming strategic alliances can save time and boost productivity. It enables companies to be more efficient and concentrate on the core strengths in developing their products and services. These alliances can be formal (partnership agreement is put in writing) or informal (a handshake is all that is necessary to "seal the deal").There are several ways you can collaborate with another business or individual to increase revenue, traffic, and even expertise to your business which ultimately will increase the value to the end-user (customer).Find the Right PartnersCollaborate with a well-known company - Most small businesses benefit from partnerships that add value, prestige and greater credibility to their own endeavors.
Associating with a well-known business can give your company instant credibility and exposure. It's not always about the bottom line.Collaborate with Your Best Customers ? Look at the company or companies who do the most business with yours. Work with them to solidify the relationship by offering them more than just good products and service. Make it nearly impossible for them to consider going anywhere else. Continually asking them why they do business with you and why they stay are the best ways to keep them.
Collaborate with the Nonprofit Community ? Joining forces with nonprofits can increase your circle of influence and your visibility in the community.Collaborate with a Former Employer ? You offer a product or service the former employer needs and provide it to them. You become a subcontractor or vendor to them. One of my dear friends worked for a fast-food company as their corporate trainer. When she decided to go into business for herself, they hired her to continue to provide training to their employees for several years. As her first major contract, the collaboration they created started her company on the road to success, and she still travels and does work for them.Collaborate with a Competitor ? Believe it or not, competitors can be very good partners.
For instance, they may offer a service or product you don't or don't wish to and vice-versa. They may also have the ability to handle a larger "job" than your company. Joining forces with another business on a project makes you look good to the customer. You become the hero. In 1999, I had the opportunity to provide all the decorations for a HUGE Floral Fair in Miami, Florida.
I knew my small company alone could not handle all the business. So I called several other florists in the community whom I admired and who did similar work. I subcontracted them to do portions of the project and get a piece of the action. Because these were floral importers we were serving, the other florists had the opportunity to network with and find new suppliers of product. It was easy to convince them to participate.
It was such a success, that it has been an ongoing project for several of the shops over the years.Think about the many businesses that are natural partners. In the real estate field, realtors partner with one another when selling a house. Florists partner with caterers, photographers and others in the event industry. Automobile insurance companies often partner with auto repair companies to insure their customers get the best service at a fair price.In an issue of Entrepreneur Magazine, I read about a coffee company in New Jersey who became the ultimate collaborator. The coffeehouse carries works from a local art gallery, has a reciprocal agreement with a local community theatre to offer significant discounts to their patrons, cross promotes with a local music store, book store, cigar shop, as well as many local nonprofits.My flower shop has partnered with masseuses, welcome-to-the-neighborhood companies, travel agents, professional organizers, beauty salons, and realtors, and several nonprofits, to name a few.
We have collaborated on networking events such as business after hours and open houses. We have promoted one another through door hanger campaigns. We have given each other our coupons to distribute to other companies. We have carried one another's business cards and brochures to distribute to our respective clients and customers. We have given away one another's products to our customers.
We offer hyperlinks on one another's websites to further promote each other. The possibilities are endless. Look for opportunities in your community that would be mutually beneficial to your partnership.The real key to success in cross-promotion, is to collaborate with non-competing businesses that are going after the same client or customer base. Choose businesses and people you trust. The promotion should make sense to both partners.
It should be a true win-win for everyone involved. Plan the promotion and evaluate the Alliance on a regular basis. Look for ways to expand your reach without increasing your overhead or debt.Excerpted from The PMS Principles - Powerful Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business by Heidi Richards.
© 2004 - Heidi Richards is the author of The PMS Principles, Powerful Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business and 7 other books.She is also the Founder & CEO of the Women?s ECommerce Association, International www.WECAI.org (pronounced wee-kī) ? an Internet organization that ?Helps Women Do Business on the WEB.?
She can be reached at www.HeidiRichards.com. (Permission to reprint this article is hereby granted with the understanding that the article and signature file remain intact)heidi@wecai.org
Teleflora Mothers Day $3 Off Coupon In Papers This Weekend
Teleflora's $3 off coupon will appear in national newspapers in both Parade and USA Weekend inserts, this weekend.
The coupon allows the reader to save an additional $3 off their Mothers Day bouquets.
While many online florists charge a wire fee or service fee as high as $9.95, 1-800-I-LOVE-YOU does not so the consumer gets a real savings.To use the coupon you must order online at http://www.800iloveyou.com and then send the printed confirmation email with the coupon to the address provided on their web site to receive credit.Be careful ordering online as some florist web sites charge a wire fee as high as $9.95 but then allow you to use the $3 coupon but you don't really save anything.This year 1-800-I-LOVE-YOU and Teleflora are offering three items licensed by bestselling artist Lena Liu. Featured this year, a hummingbird teapot bouquet and a collectible teacup and saucer bouquet both the second in this popular...
Florists > Teleflora Mothers Day $3 Off Coupon In Papers This Weekend
Flower Power!
Many fail to realize the power flowers have on our emotional well being. Flowers overwhelm our senses with exotic fragrances and beauty. They play on our need for belonging, attention and attraction and most of all; flowers remind us that we are somehow "special" to someone.
So why do so many people underestimate the simple sentiment of flowers?
Reasons people give for not sending flowers are that they do not know where to start and that not everyone appreciates flowers, especially men.
Locating a florist near you is simple. By searching through your local phone directory or by doing an Internet search for Florists you can easily access an extensive directory of florists that should be able to accommodate deliveries in your area, nation and world wide.
Locating a florist near you, that is suited to your needs, however, may be a little more difficult.
Asking a florist if they have an active database that they use for...
Flower Power!
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Send Thanksgiving Flowers
Thanksgiving is a festival celebrated with great pomp. Spreading cheerfulness all around, it brings together every member of the family. A time marked by togetherness, gratitude, and love, it is a festival of merriment and enjoyment. And to add to the magic and color of the day, special Thanksgiving flowers exist.
1-800-flowers, Palace Florists, Phillip's 1-800-Florals, FTD or Florists Transworld Delivery, Just Flowers, Brant Florist, ProFlowers, Flora 2000, Dot Flowers, Larose, Wesley Berry Flowers, Blossom Flowers, KaBloom, Shackelford's Florist, Speaking Roses, Beyond Blossoms, and Hallmark are some examples of companies offering flowers for thanksgiving.
Reflecting the colors of autumn, a huge range of flowers is provided by the aforementioned companies.
Chrysanthemums, roses, and lots of other vibrant, colorful flowers produce beautiful Thanksgiving gifts. Some arrangements such as the ?FTD Thanksgiving bouquet', ?Teleflora's Williamsburg...
Send Thanksgiving Flowers
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Send Red Roses
Distances often make it difficult for people to be physically present for special occasions. Whether it's an important birthday, wedding, anniversary, Thanksgiving, Christmas and even the birth of a child, people sometimes just can't be present because they live in a different city, are traveling on business, or vacationing. Yet, they want to be there for people who are special to them and share their joyous moments with them. That's when they send red roses and make the people they send them to feel loved.
Sometimes, people are distant from each other even when they are in the same city, the same office or the same home. What distances them is the inability to express their feelings in words.
They want to express love, empathy, reassurance or passion, but feel at a complete loss for words. Even if they decide on the words they are going to say, they constantly hesitate because they are afraid that the timing may not be right. The harder they try to be spontaneous,...
Send Red Roses
Florists > Send Red Roses
5 Tips to Prepare Your Home Party Hostess
One of the most important things to remember to have a successful home party is to make sure your Hostess is prepared. Well preparedness of your hostess is essential in having your home party run smoothly. The following tips will help your next home party be a success:1. Before your home party be sure to meet with the hostess personally. Make sure she is familiar with the products that you carry.
Help your hostess come up with a guest list. Remind her of people she could invite such as...
5 Tips to Prepare Your Home Party Hostess party It Takes Two - How to Cultivate Profitable Alliances Florists
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2004 World SWAT Conference and Challenge to be Held at Blackwater USA
Virginia Beach, VA and Moyock, NC(ContentDesk) March 8, 2004 -- Never before in the history of the world has there been such a need for men and women who can respond effectively to our most critical incidents. Blackwater USA, the world's largest firearms and tactical training facility has put together a conference to meet that need that is unlike any other before it. Four tracks will be offered: Executive Management, Weapons, Tactics, and Sniper. The three-day conference will begin each morning...
It Takes Two - How to Cultivate Profitable Alliances
Florists > 2004 World SWAT Conference and Challenge to be Held at Blackwater USA
Moneynet Warns Government Intervention Is Insufficient Against Loan Sharks
(ContentDesk) October 12, 2005 -- New government proposals to protect vulnerable families from the clutches of loan sharks are hopelessly misguided, according to online data financial comparison site Moneynet.co.uk. The Government announced new savings plans last week which are designed to encourage the financially-disadvantaged to start saving, by raising the threshold on which they would pay tax. This move was designed to discourage households with the lowest incomes from borrowing from...
loans Moneynet Warns Government Intervention Is Insufficient Against Loan Sharks It Takes Two - How to Cultivate Profitable Alliances
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"Why Exercise Bikes Might Be the Ultimate Fitness
Exercise bikes are the first things that come to your mindwhen you talk about home exercise equipments. Exercisecycles popularly known as exercise bikes have gained somuch recognition that they are next to TV in demand andpopularity among the household items. The best part about workouts with exercise bike is that ithas no side effects or no rules to follow. This makes it atremendous gizmo to chop off that extra fat just like that.Most health conscious people keep the exercise bike intheir home...
It Takes Two - How to Cultivate Profitable Alliances exercise
Florists > "Why Exercise Bikes Might Be the Ultimate Fitness
Exercise Equipment
Exercise equipment signifies any object that is used for exercise. It includes simple spring-like devices, re-circulating-stream swimming pools and computerized electromechanical rides among others. The world of exercise equipments is varied on the basis of the purpose and age of the people using it. Before using any instrument for the first time, it is vital to understand its working process clearly. This enables a more efficient use of the equipment.
Today, technologically advanced exercise...
Exercise Equipment It Takes Two - How to Cultivate Profitable Alliances
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