The 3 Benefits of Business Collaboration

The benefits of business collaboration far outweigh working alone. Collaboration is a bit like setting off in a canoe, to your favourite camping spot twenty miles down the river. Then realising it would take you half the time if you had someone paddling with you!
One of the things I’ve learnt running a business group that’s aimed at helping people is the importance of collaboration.
Collaboration is a very potent way for small business owners to help grow their business and make some great connections. It helps take your business to the next level and is well worth the time and effort.
So here are the benefits of business collaboration that I have observed.

Collaboration can help you solve problems.

I’m sure you have heard the old saying ‘two heads are better than one?’ If you think about it, how often when you’ve been working alone on a project and you suddenly find yourself stuck and don’t know what to do? What have you done, you’ve gone to someone to ask for help, right? That might be a trusted partner, mentor, or even a friend that you can use just as a sounding board to help you work through the issue.
Collaborating and having someone (or several people) working with you can take away the stress and anxiety of solving everything yourself. Plus when you start down this route it can spark other ideas on things you hadn’t even thought about, opening up other opportunities for you and your business!

Collaboration can be educational

This can be of huge benefit to you and your business, the opportunity to learn new things. Just by the simple act of connecting with other people how often have you found out about some valuable information on a subject or topic that’s been really useful?
I’ve witnessed an example of a great collaboration at our In Business group.  This is between two professionals with very different skills sets, perspectives and strengths. One from an HR background and the other specialising in business strategy.
By working together they have put together a course aimed at businesses develop a strategic business and people plan. By working together and collaborating they have learned from each other as well as being able to pass on valuable advice to other businesses.

Collaboration Can Halve Your Risk and Save You Money

Lots of businesses collaborate because it’s a great way to halve your risk and save you money at the same time. Collaborating with another business can help you reduce your costs on things like marketing and business development. If you are undertaking a large expensive project with significant financial risk, what better way to help reduce that risk than by collaborating with another business or partner. Sharing resources, ideas and expertise has got to be one of the great advantages of collaboration.

For your business to be successful, one of the most important things is to continually meet new people. To be successful you need to build a list of contacts and colleagues, making connections and forming alliances. Think about what would happen to your business, would it start to quickly go down hill if you only sold to the same people? With every connection or contact you make you are expanding your network. Of course this may not result in a collaboration every time but imagine the possibilities and where it might lead.
Feel free to contact me at ian@weareinbusiness.co.uk if you’d like to know more. Also check out our Events Page and come along to a meeting where you can start making connections and who knows, some great collaborations