5 Ways Businesses Can Help Each Other Grow

Collaborating with other passionate, driven businesses is a fantastic way for organisations to expand their reach and become more successful. Here are five brilliant ways businesses can help each other to grow.

1. Passing on opportunities

If you come across an opportunity that is not quite the right fit for your business, consider passing on the details to another company instead. In future, that business may do the very same for you and open the doors to new opportunities which could have a huge impact on your firm. Sharing opportunities is a great way to let other businesses know that you support them, and to get their support in return.

2. Sharing resources

By sharing premises, equipment or even work, businesses can maximise their productivity whilst keeping overheads as low as possible. Michelle Henry, manager of HNS Signs, shares resources with Genesis Displays in this way and says that the situation has allowed them to share skills and business as well as costs. However, in order to maintain a successful relationship in these circumstances, it’s important to have a confidentiality agreement so that each business can protect itself against breaches in confidential data.

3. Marketing collaborations

A great way for businesses to share their audiences is to collaborate on marketing campaigns. This could be as simple as one business recommending the other to each new customer, or it could involve more complex special offers in which customers are rewarded with discounts for shopping with other supported businesses. Collaborations could also take place over social media to raise awareness of brands, or they could even lead to the development of new products or services in which the skills of both businesses are combined.

4. Sharing expertise

Running a business requires a vast range of knowledge and skills, and it’s unreasonable to expect every business owner to have all this expertise naturally. The solution is for businesses to share knowledge. For example, the owner of a digital marketing agency may be able to get free advice from an accountancy firm in regards to his finances. In return, the he could offer advice to the accountancy firm to help them improve their social media presence. By sharing expertise or services in this way, businesses can gain valuable knowledge without any extra expense.

5. Using their services

In order to expect small businesses to support you, you must support other small businesses, which means choosing their services over that of larger corporations. By adopting the supportive mindset and making a concerted effort to use smaller vendors and service providers like yourself, you’re more likely to become part of a small business community and see other organisations choose your services in favour of larger competitors.