Are You Ready for A Collaborative Alliance?

Collaborative Alliances can be a great strategy for expanding your visibility and  profits while creating positive impact for all parties involved.  While there may be no legalities involvled in creating this type of alliance, there should be plenty of  preparation, discovery, intent, and written objectives if you are to experience a truly successful collaboration.

Alliances need to be both intelligent and value focused if they are to be one of the anchors to building a truly powerful expansion strategy.  Intelligent collaborative alliances focus on creating an even playing field for both you and your alliance partner.  You and your potential partner need to be crystal clear on what you want and want you will  contribute to the alliance.

Think with the Collaborative Factor in Mind – beginning with a framework for  assesing a win-win alliance: 

Assess:  Do you have a clear and articulated understanding of what you want from the alliance?  How will this alliance serve your target markets, customers, etc.?

Locate:  Locate venues and other networking opportunties that will allow you to meet like-minded potential collaborative opportunities.

Evaluate:  Apply a process for evaluating the success and collaborative-ability(TM) of your potential alliance that includes:  Objectives, Roles, Resources, Reach& Access, Metrics, Legalities.

Implement:  Do you have a way to effectively deliver and manage the alliance including communication among the alliance partners?

Collaboration is about cooperation with your competition as well as complementary marketing but one thing collaboration isn’t is staying “silo-ed” or working in a vaccum.  Collaboration obviously won’t happy alone – you need step into the mindset of a Collaborative Leader.

ABOUT Janet Wise:  is the Founder/CEO of The Collaborative Factor.  An online collaborative community and NYC based entrepreneurial network for small business, solopreneurs and those interested in leveraging the power, acumen and support of a select group of entrepreneurs working together through inspired action so that big ideas don’t just double they explode – exponentially.   A former corporate training and development expert with a Masters in HR development, Janet was responsible for managing global leadership and professional development and high potential leaderhsip programs at Fortune 500 companies; she is skilled professional facilitator and natural collaborator.  www.wisesolutions4u.com or www.wisepowernetwork.ning.com  for more information.

 
Connect. Collaborate. Capitalize.

From my own experience I know how exciting, rewarding, and profitable it can be to collaborate with other inspired entrepreneurs. I have built my success both personally and professionally by leveraging the talents and power of many and you can too.

I also know how challenging it can be to understand the leadership, mindset and dynamics of identifying, nurturing and implementing a successful collaborative alliance – which is why I created the Collaborative Factor.

Alliances need to be both intelligent and value focused if they are to be one of the anchors to building a truly powerful business expansion strategy.

To best leverage your collaborative alliances, you need to become a Value Focused Collaborator. That is, creating an even playing field for both you and your alliance partner to get the most from your relationship. Know what you want and understand whay they need.

Think with the Collaborative Factor in mind: When faced with a potential collaborative opportunity, ask yourself:

• What are 2 to 3 assets my potential alliance partner has that can help me and what are 2 to 3 assets I have to help them.
• How do we produce a “win” together?

 Rather than focusing strictly on the income potential think how can you help others achieve their success?  Just like with networking, building effective collaborative relationships takes time, intent, analysis, and intelligence – but the results are worth it!

You may reprint this article with this information:
By Janet Wise, Founder: The Collaborative Factor, collaborativefactor.com or janet@collaborativefactor.com