Finding Home Business Partners, Collaborators

I have been focusing on collaboration with other business entrepreneurs lately and today’s topic is -

Before You Collaborate: Take Stock

Specifically: how will you find someone and what will you collaborate about??  I suggest a little written exercise where you look at two things-

1. What can I contribute?  If you are going to network and approach others with a collaboration deal, they will want to know what you have to offer. You may be already quite successful with a large list like the one Ann Sieg owns, but more likely you don’t. So what do you bring to the table?
2. What am I looking for? At this point in your business, what could you use that someone else could contribute? If you have part of an “angle” for a book, course, product design, or marketing plan— could you collaborate with someone who might provide the other part?

Now to help you think about both of those items, here is a list of thought-triggers that may help you write down your answers for your collaboration possibilities.  I introduced this list in my latest collaboration video.  It’s about 10 minutes of information that provides an overview of collaboration, the process, and this “getting ready” exercise:

Checklist of Thought-Triggers (To Answer the Two Key Questions).

It is a long list and many items overlap.

• Skills: The actual skills that people possess is endless.  If you have a skill that complements someone else’s, that could be a plus. Again, what do you have; what could be helpful to you at this point in your growth? Skills like–
  • Video production
  • Writing with pull
  • Making a lead capture page
  • HTML, CSS, etc
  • Converting text to an eBook
  • Good voice
• Time: Whether you have few or many skills, whether you are a beginner or very experienced in a skill, what can be a deal-breaker is the time you are willing to commit to the skill that you have.
• Expertise: Beyond a skill, what is your niche of expertise?  This may include skills but also knowledge. What “job expertise” is transferrable to a home business activity?
• Experience: Similar to the above, but the focus is a history of involvement to a field, an activity, or a group of people. The knowledge is practical, seasoned. You know the pitfalls. You have a testimony, you have stories, or you have slides of your experience.
• Product(s): What have you created? What type of product do you wish to market to your niche audience?
  • An eBook, a white paper or report, a published book
  • A video, a webinar
  • A brochure, catalog
  • A website, blog, membership site
  • A software program
  • Photography, music, other art or creative products
  • Short story, poetry
  • Recipe, best brownie or muffin
  • Systems for a specific service: weight-loss, gardening, child-care, cooking, buying a car, customer service, quality management,….
  • A tangible consumer or commercial good
• Partial Product(s): For example, you have written part of an eBook but need someone with different expertise to write several missing chapters. Reconsider the list under “Products” but this time think of ways you could co-create one of those products with the right partner.
• Ideas: Do you have an idea but lack the skill to create or implement it? Yes, hiring an expert (outsourcing) is one excellent route. Lacking funds for outsourcing? With the right idea and the right partner, collaboration could work. Perhaps you have the idea and the skill to implement it, but are missing something for marketing it?
• Process: Do you have a better way of getting a certain task done?  In industry, it’s called a BKM – best known method. But the BKM originates with one employee who has stumbled on a faster way, a cheaper way, or a way with a higher quality result.
• Invention: Taking any one or more of the preceding points and have laid it all out on paper. A formal description of a product.
• Patent:  One step further. You own a patent on a product. The value (actual or perceived) has increased along with this.
• Contacts.  You have a great network. You know leaders, resource people, investors, or celebrities and they know you.
• A List:  Could be your Newsletter list or other prospect list.  Could be actual buyers, customers of yours.  Could be a client list, people that truly follow you.  Obviously, the bigger the list the better. Still, if you and four others each have 200 names, when you collaborate you have the power of 1000 names. Etc.
• A Name or Brand.  Your name is well recognized in your niche area. This may or may not mean that you also have a list. Some people have established “a name” due to their accomplishments, for example, without identifiable “tribe” members.
• Trademark. One step further, you have taken your name or even a unique symbol for your brand, and registered it as a trademark.
• Transportation: Maybe you have a car and can offer a ride. Maybe you have extra frequent flyer miles.
• Space to Share:  Maybe you have a spacious office area, workshop, or web server.
• Cash:  Investment capital.
• Information:  You have critical knowledge or information.  That knowledge may not be developed into a product, process, or invention. It may not even be an idea. But you know something. Naturally supply and demand applies here as elsewhere: the fewer people that know this and the more people that would want to know this the better.
• Viewpoint: A slightly different understanding or opinion on existing knowledge. It must be so-well expressed that it is a desirable commodity. Think political  blogs that are monetized.

Is this helpful? You may want to get all of the information I’m putting together on this topic of home business collaboration:

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You might also want to see these related posts:

1. Your Home Business Leadership Needs to Grow in Competence
2. Home Business Newsletters- Not the Best Way to Learn Home Business Information
3. Where to Network for Collaboration Partners
4. NAMS 6 Review | Best Conference for Your Training Dollar
5. 5 Mistakes While Finding Your Niche