Entrepreneurs know that building your influence and growing your business takes time.
Collaboration is one key strategy for entrepreneurs to quickly build their influence, grow their business, and increase their revenue and income.
The most important factor is to choose the right people and brands to collaborate with; businesses who share similar values and standards and that have an audience you want to be in front of are the right fit.
When entering into new collaborations (especially with friends, family, and colleagues that you have a pre-existing relationship with), have the important conversations up front.
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​Talk about what you both/all want and need from the collaboration. Clarify roles. Discuss in advance how disagreements, decisions, and challenges will be handled. These are all strategies to preserve the relationship if the collaboration goes sideways.
When collaborations are set up for success (often supported by a written collaboration agreement), they have a much higher ability to build influence and make a bigger difference in the world. The work you do in the beginning to set the collaboration up for success will positively impact the results the collaboration achieves.
Sam Liebowitz and Charmaine Hammond had a great conversation on his radio show, The Conscious Consultant, about collaboration, influence, and impact. Click HERE to listen to the conversation. One of the listeners asked a great question about getting sponsorship and collaboration partners in a somewhat new industry. Check out the tip on the show.
The Global Influence Summit was an example shared in the conversations with Sam. This event is a collaboration of three key partners (Charmaine Hammond, Teresa de Grosbois, and Joseph Ranseth) and their respective businesses. It is also a collaboration which includes marketing partners, champions, and sponsors. This well defined collaboration has allowed this event to grow over the past three years. Raise a Dream was also one of the case studies that Charmaine discussed.
A few key collaboration and influence building tips we discussed are to:
- Communicate
- Address issues as they arise
- Create crystal clear clarity on the collaboration and the desired results for all parties
- Make note of agreements and decisions
As you explore your next collaboration, remember to choose the right partners, plan together on the results and impact you want to achieve, and have fun!