4 Benefits of Business Partnerships

Partners, partners, partners.

They’re one of the most important relationships that you can form. Romantic partners swear to stay with each other in sickness and in health, police officers learn to trust their partners with their lives, partners in crime swear to never rat on each other… but what about business partners?

Business partnerships are one of those things that you just can’t learn about in business school. As much as you can be told about having a business partner, you can’t know what the experience is like until you’ve gone through it yourself.

A good partnership can take both you and your partner’s businesses to the next level. But what exactly are the specific benefits of partnerships?

If you’ve found yourself asking this question, you’ve come to the right place. This article will walk you through several of the greatest advantages of a  business partnership, and encourage you to look through the right partner today.

1. Development of Values

Of course, businesses are all about satisfying customers and making money. But values aren’t some kind of hippy nonsense, they help you unify your vision and get your workers working towards a common goal.

When you take on a business partner, you give yourself someone to talk to. Language, in many ways, is organized thought, and through the conversations, you have with your partner, you’ll better articulate your core values. When you better articulate your core values, you’ll have a higher chance of getting your employees on the same page.

You can think of you and your business partner as two blades sharpening each other. You’re both able to deal damage on your own, but when you combine forces, you’ll be unstoppable.

2. Diversity of Experience

The statement “we all come from different backgrounds” is so true that it’s almost useless. What is useful, however, is the experiences different people from different backgrounds can bring to each other. We’re not just talking about where they come from, we’re talking about their business experience. 

If you’re looking to find yourself a partner, consider finding someone whose strengths complement yours.

If you’re an expert at mobilizing a sales team but don’t consider yourself more creative, consider setting yourself up with someone who’s great at generating ideas. A serious music manager in a suit and tie might have all of the business acumen in the world, but he’d be nothing without his long-haired spontaneous rockstars.

There are many diverse skill sets that can accomplish each other: Someone great with technology could team up with someone great at managing people; a more profit-oriented person could team up with someone more empathetic; two people from different age groups could provide what they know about different demographics.

A diversity of experience allows you to divide and conquer. When you focus on your strengths and rely on a partner to cover your weaknesses, there is no limit to how high you can climb.

The Upstart Group is a great online advertising business that has found a new business partner in Pilot Automotive. To read about a great example of a business partnership, check out their blog.

3. More Customers

When you acquire a partner, you acquire many of their customers as well. One of the biggest advantages of a partnership is the combination of customer bases.

You have most likely worked hard to establish yourself a dedicated customer base. Your base is not just the people who come to you for your product. They’re the people who keep coming back. 

People come back to a business for one reason: trust. If you find a partner who’s trusted in their field, their customers trust them. When they tell their customers that you’re trustworthy as well, they’re more likely to support you in what you do.

4. Get In on a New Market

But the customers aren’t the only new thing you have access to. Acquiring a partner means opening up a whole new market for yourself. This means forging new grounds for you, your business, and your employees.

Let’s say you run a video game studio. Your business focuses on providing gamers with an entertaining experience that they’ll want more and more of. You find yourself having a lot of great conversations with a furniture manufacturer…

It turns out, you both share a passion for comfort. You both believe that entertainment should be worked into a person’s life. That the best experiences are unpretentious, grounded, and can be had from the comfort of home.

If you decide to take up a partnership with this theoretical furniture manufacturer, you’re entering a whole new world. Whereas your focus on lights and sounds that stimulate people’s eyes and ears, he focuses on the body, a feeling of rest.

Suddenly you have many new options opened up to you. You can use the analytics you already have to find out exactly the type of furniture that gamers use while playing games. You can start to manufacture gaming chairs that help your customers enjoy the experience better.

Tips and materials will be provided to you by your partner. You may even be able to sell your chairs packed together with your games.

As you can see, the skies are truly the limit in the world of business partnerships.

Business Partnerships

No man is an island. We all walk through this life with partners of many different kinds. If you run a business, consider taking on business partnerships to help you grow.

A business partner will help you develop your values, cultivate a diversity of experience, expand your customer base, and allow you opportunities to get in on a new market. Keep all of these advantages in mind and you can do no wrong.

For more articles like this, check out our business section.