“Cross promoting with other businesses can give you a significant advantage over the competition, with many benefits and cost savings.” -Heidi Richards-

More and more competition in the marketplace is making it necessary for companies to find creative ways to connect with customers and prospects, to enhance brand identity and attract top-notch employees. In order to enhance competitiveness in today’s marketplace, more and more companies are forming strategic alliances. Strategic alliances can maximize your position in the marketplace. When you learn how to leverage partnerships you increase your market share. It is also a very smart way to grow a small business. Cross promoting with other businesses can give you a significant advantage over the competition with many benefits and cost savings.

A strategic alliance is based on an arrangement between two companies to combine resource that will help both gain a greater share of the market. They are often formed when one business alone is unable to fill the gap in serving the needs of the marketplace. Forming strategic alliances can save time and boost productivity. It enables companies to be more efficient and concentrate on the core strengths in developing their products and services. These alliances can be formal (partnership agreement is put in writing) or informal (a handshake is all that is necessary to “seal the deal”).

There are several ways you can collaborate with another business or individual to increase revenue, traffic, and even expertise to your business which ultimately will increase the value to the end-user (customer).

Find the Right Partners

Collaborate with a well-known company - Most small businesses benefit from partnerships that add value, prestige and greater credibility to their own endeavors. Associating with a well-known business can give your company instant credibility and exposure. It’s not always about the bottom line.

Collaborate with Your Best Customers - Look at the company or companies who do the most business with yours. Work with them to solidify the relationship by offering them more than just good products and service. Make it nearly impossible for them to consider going anywhere else. Continually asking them why they do business with you and why they stay are the best ways to keep them. Collaborate with the Nonprofit Community - Joining forces with nonprofits can increase your circle of influence and your visibility in the community.

Collaborate with a Former Employer - You offer a product or service the former employer needs and provide it to them. You become a subcontractor or vendor to them. One of my dear friends worked for a fast-food company as their corporate trainer. When she decided to go into business for herself, they hired her to continue to provide training to their employees for several years. As her first major contract, the collaboration they created started her company on the road to success, and she still travels and does work for them.

Collaborate with a Competitor - Believe it or not, competitors can be very good partners. For instance, they may offer a service or product you don’t or don’t wish to and vice-versa. They may also have the ability to handle a larger “job” than your company. Joining forces with another business on a project makes you look good to the customer. You become the hero. In 1999, I had the opportunity to provide all the decorations for a HUGE Floral Fair in Miami, Florida. I knew my small company alone could not handle all the business. So I called several other florists in the community whom I admired and who did similar work. I subcontracted them to do portions of the project and get a piece of the action. Because these were floral importers we were serving, the other florists had the opportunity to network with and find new suppliers of product. It was easy to convince them to participate. It was such a success, that it has been an ongoing project for several of the shops over the years.

Think about the many businesses that are natural partners. In the real estate field, realtors partner with one another when selling a house. Florists partner with caterers, photographers and others in the event industry. Automobile insurance companies often partner with auto repair companies to insure their customers get the best service at a fair price.

In an issue of Entrepreneur Magazine, I read about a coffee company in New Jersey who became the ultimate collaborator. The coffeehouse carries works from a local art gallery, has a reciprocal agreement with a local community theatre to offer significant discounts to their patrons, cross promotes with a local music store, book store, cigar shop, as well as many local nonprofits.

My flower shop has partnered with masseuses, welcome-to-the-neighborhood companies, travel agents, professional organizers, beauty salons, and realtors, and several nonprofits, to name a few. We have collaborated on networking events such as business after hours and open houses. We have promoted one another through door hanger campaigns. We have given each other our coupons to distribute to other companies. We have carried one another’s business cards and brochures to distribute to our respective clients and customers. We have given away one another’s products to our customers. We offer hyperlinks on one another’s websites to further promote each other. The possibilities are endless. Look for opportunities in your community that would be mutually beneficial to your partnership.

The real key to success in cross-promotion, is to collaborate with non-competing businesses that are going after the same client or customer base. Choose businesses and people you trust. The promotion should make sense to both partners. It should be a true win-win for everyone involved. Plan the promotion and evaluate the Alliance on a regular basis. Look for ways to expand your reach without increasing your overhead or debt.

Excerpted from The PMS Principles - Powerful Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business by Heidi Richards

About The Author

© 2004 - Heidi Richards is the author of The PMS Principles, Powerful Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business and 7 other books. She is also the Founder & CEO of the Women’s ECommerce Association, International www.WECAI.org (pronounced wee-kī) - an Internet organization that “Helps Women Do Business on the WEB.” She can be reached at www.HeidiRichards.com. (Permission to reprint this article is hereby granted with the understanding that the article and signature file remain intact)

heidi@wecai.org

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Most Americans are familiar with the USA PATRIOT Act. Passed into law on October 24, 2001, just six weeks after the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks, the Act expands the authority of U.S. law enforcement for the stated purpose of fighting terrorist acts in the United States and abroad.

The rights the act give government, while protecting America from terrorist threat, affect business in several ways. The new reporting and customer monitoring requirements increase operational costs and may expose companies to lawsuits over consumer privacy.

Retail businesses, telecommunications firms and financial businesses are the hardest hit because of the extensive records they must keep and the fact that they must quickly produce any records requested by the government.

Consumers are also inconvenienced by the PATRIOT Act. Anyone buying a car, applying for a loan or leasing equipment must now complete a menagerie of forms, make certifications, meet compliance and audit programs and comply with bureaucratic red-tape that in all likelihood will never even be reviewed by the government. For this reason, many question the actual security benefits of these requirements.

Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act directly affects private industry by empowering federal law enforcement to subpoena a business for any “tangible thing,” such as customer records, library check-out lists, medical records and bank account information.

This may not sound like anything out of the ordinary; police and the government have always been able to subpoena records. But what makes Sec. 215 extraordinary is that it removes the normal requirement to meet the legal standard of “probable cause.” Judges must issue subpoenas upon receipt of the FBI application.

Additionally, Sec. 215 supersedes any privacy guarantees between businesses and customers. If a business is served with a Sec. 215 order it is unable to contest it or alert customers.

TITLE III of the Patriot Act expands government access to personal financial information by requiring financial institutions to closely monitor daily financial transactions and share that information with federal agencies. But financial institutions are defined more broadly than many would suspect and include insurance companies; real estate agencies; mortgage brokers; money managers; finance companies; travel agents; automobile, airplane, boat and jewelry dealers; and attorneys.

But despite these inconveniences and, some might say, abuse of power, the majority of respondents to the Tampa Bay Business Journal’s Business Pulse Survey on the topic said they do not believe the PATRIOT Act should be repealed.

The survey, conducted in December of 2005, revealed that 58% of the 206 respondents said they felt the PATRIOT Act should not be repealed.

Those in favor of keeping the act made comments such as “We don’t need another 911. Bad for business.”
and “We need to protect our nation and business sector by being aware of what enemies of our society are plotting and planning!”

Those wishing to see the act repealed made comments such as “The Patriot Act gives the government free reign to spy on innocent citizens in the name of terrorism. It smacks of Nixon’s war on political enemies.” and “It goes against all the definitions of what it means to be an American. If our freedoms are taken away, we’re just like the rest of the world and we lose what makes us a special place.”

Mandy Minor is the Co-founder and Senior Marketing Consultant for J. Allan Writing and Design Studios. A member of the American Advertising Federation, Mandy is the Achievements Chair of Ad 2 Tampa Bay and a staff writer for the Tampa Bay Sun.

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I have recently been doing quite a bit of work in the European Community and more particularly in the UK. One of the things that I’ve found interesting is that many of our European brethren are not familiar with the term “C-suite executive”. As the yank from the colonies I’ve found myself attempting to rationally explain the phenomenon of “Title Proliferation” (which is comprised of “Title Escalation” and “Title Inflation”) that we’ve experienced in the US over the last several years. After a few explanations and a little reflection, I thought this topic worthy of today’s blog post (or blog venting session as the case may be).

It wasn’t that long ago that we only had a handful of C-suite positions: Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer…Oh what a wonderful era when Corporate America was a simple place where a president was a president and not a division manager posing as a president.

All kidding aside, in this author’s humble opinion there are legitimate needs and corresponding uses and benefits for certain titles when applied appropriately for true corporate benefit. That being said, I’m never thrilled to be called on by someone who introduces themself as something more than the reality of who they really are…Clever marketing is one thing, but gross embellishment is quite another.

Let’s see if we can’t make sense out of this debacle by first defining the difference between title escalation and title inflation. Title escalation is the creation of a new position which in turn truly requires the creation of a new corresponding title. Title inflation on the other hand is bestowing a grandiose title upon someone who is either underqualifed or otherwise not legitimately deserving of the title. I believe the phenomenon of title inflation in the US to have been started in the banking industry…I woke up one day and suddenly found that anyone who was not a teller was a Vice President of something or otherLet’s examine the current list of C-suite titles (excluding the ones mentioned above):

Chief Strategy Officer

Chief Information Officer

Chief Technology Officer

Chief Investment Officer

Chief Innovation Officer

Chief Talent Officer

Chief Marketing Officer

Chief Knowledge Officer

Chief Compliance Officer

I’m sure that by the time this article gets posted there may be a few other titles that need to be added to the list. All puns aside, there have been times when I found myself completely in awe of the talent, experience and intelligence possessed by individuals that have held the aforementioned titles. In other circumstances I have been totally embarrassed for corporations that have allowed their entities to be represented by such extreme examples of form over substance.

So where did all these titles come from? If I’m candid, I can’t say for sure, so what follows is my best attempt at reconstructing American title history and therefore should not be taken as fact. As I noted earlier, I believe that banks induced the inflationary period that has so tightly gripped Corporate America with regard to titles only to have insurance companies and other financial services firms follow suit. In America, as goes Wall Street, so goeth the rest of Corporate America. Yes the heard mentality is still alive and well

Title Escalation on the other hand (at least where used appropriately) simply evolved over time to keep pace with corporate growth and maturation. By way of example, when corporate finance became so fractionalized by complexity and specialization, it was necessary to draw a distinction between investment and finance and thus the duties, roles and responsibilities were divided between the Chief Financial Officer and the new role of Chief Investment Officer. The same holds true for advancements in all practice areas and disciplinesAs technology became more advanced, staffs and budgets grew as did corporate dependencies a various platforms, environments and toolsets and thus the need for more senior leadership positions such as Chief Information Officers and Chief Technology Officers. When marketing evolved beyond buying media in print, TV and radio mediums to managing multiple brands across multiple mediums on a global basis the Chief Marketing Officer was born and the list goes on

When all is said and done, I believe necessary and appropriate title escalation by design is a valuable and needed evolutionary phenomenon that constantly pushes the envelope of innovation and is good for business. It is the unnecessary, illogical and harmful aspects of title inflation that I take exception to.

So there you have itI’ve been referred to as the world’s greatest repository of corporate dribble and in this post I think I’ve lived-up to my billingThanks for allowing the venting session.

Mike Myatt is the Chief Strategy Officer at N2growth. N2growth is a leading venture growth consultancy providing a unique array of professional services to high growth companies on a venture based business model. The rare combination of branding and corporate identity services, capital formation assistance, market research and business intelligence, sales and product engineering, leadership development and talent management, as well as marketing, advertising and public relations services make N2growth the industry leader in strategic growth consulting. More information about the company can be found at http://www.N2growth.com or by viewing http://www.N2growth.com/blog

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