Want to Successfully Take Your Business to the Next Level? You Can’t Do It Alone Any More!

February 16th, 2010

If there’s one thing I know for sure, it’s that “way back when, in the good old days” business and life were simple enough for us professionals to fly solo. If you truly want to be well seen, well known, and well paid because you are known as an expert in your field, I can just about promise this means you need to give up this “rugged Lone Ranger” mindset and replace it with a collaborative one.

CRITICAL COMPONENTS FOR TAKING YOUR BUSINESS TO THE NEXT LEVEL

Yes, today you need to bring others into your business in order to succeed in a big way.

There are two different aspects of your business where you can work with others:

• People helping you run your business : things like doing administrative tasks, marketing,
• People with whom you co-create and/or market and/or deliver new programs, products, services and/or events

Good news! This doesn’t mean hiring employees or entering legal partnerships with others!

You can if you choose. I suggest you wait to take these legally binding actions until you’ve tested the waters. Date before you marry!

For getting assistance working IN your business:

• You can outsource to someone who has a business specializing in serving others,  doing what you need done.
• You can hire someone part-time.
• You can barter with someone who needs wht you have to offer.

For creating new ’stuff to offer’ (that’s today’s buzz word for products, programs, services, events, etc. Do you like it?)

You can for joint ventures and strategic alliances.

• You can become an affiliate of someone to make a commission on their “stuff to offer” so you have more stuff to offer whether or not you created it.
• You can have affiliates help you promote and sell you and your stuff for a commission.

STOP & BREATHE!

I know you just read all that in a few short minutes. RELAX! You can put down your guard, lower your Marketing Resistance. Unless you’ve got lots of time, money and energy lying around, there’s now way to read this today and have all that in place tomorrow! Trust me! I and many I know have tried. We all agree… It’s impossible to take your business to another level over night.

ROME WASN’T BUILD IN A DAY!

Neither can you turn your current business into the business of your dreams over night. That’s the good news and the bad news. We may want it over night. We just can’t do all that’s required to make it happen over night.

You need to be clear about where you are, where you want to go, do a gap analysys to determine what you’ve got in place and what’s missing. That’s the strategic part. Then you need to turn the Big Picture into Very Doable Action Steps. Yes, that means having a detailed game plan for getting from where you are to where you want to be.

MAPPING YOUR SUCCESSFUL JOURNEY FROM HERE TO THERE

Part of your MAP (Magic Action Plan) will include milestones – what you want to accomplish by when. Be sure these are SMARTER milestonds: Specific, Measurable, Achievable (with a little stretch, of course,) Realistic , Time-based, Energizing, and Results-oriented. 

And, while you can set goals, keep in mind you can bring a horse to water AND you can’t make it drink. In other words, you can do everything right and someone can say no, something out of your control can keep you from achieving your desired outcome.

So think instead about what you CAN do, do your best, keep you yeys on the prize, overcome obstacles and get around roadblocks.

So set goals, then draw a line between what is and what isn’t under your control. Frame things under your control so you’re being SMART. Make sure the things you want to accomplish are TOTALLY under your control

While you may not land exactly where you wanted, you’ll land somewhere better than if you hadn’t implemented this Strategy for Success.

I know what I just wrote has been brewing in me for a long time. I hope it helps and I’d love to hear how, of course.

And now, back to the reason I started this post… (NOTE: this is the strategy I use for myself and all clients, friends, anyone who will listen.)

ENTREPRENEURIAL JOINT VENTURE MAKING

My friend, and fellow Web 2.0 expert, Pat Weber recently did a webinar by that title. I’m currently smack dab in the middle of listening and looking at the accompanying slides (Great job getting them synched, Pat, and thanks for doing it! Ah, when technology lets us create what we want!)

What stopped me and inspired this post? When Pat and Monique started talking about what can make or break an alliance.

DEAL BREAKER OR DEAL MAKER

That’s something we all tend to glance over whether is in our business or life relationships.

Here’s what Pat and her partner, Monique, have to say about this:

1. What’s your one greatest challenge that will impact the success of your JV parthership?
2. Identify if this challenge is internal (IC) or external (EC).
3. Add this one greatest challenge to the corresponding spot within the following formula:

I just realized to share the rest of this information here is to reinvent the wheel, which honestly I don’t have the time or expertise to do, so I’m going to be bold and ask you to click on this link so you learn from the pros, the masters themselves, Pat Weber and Monique MacKinnon. I know you’ll be glad you did.

Oh, this is me walking my talk. Pat and I are both members of the Web 2.0 Community and Business website. I’m holding the spotlight on Pat. She well deserves it and so do you!

P.S. Pat and Monique do some great programs on BlitzTime. You can contact Pat directly to learn more or simply go to the list of all BlitzTime events and discover Pat’s presentations among the manny offered including mine. That’s right! I co-host a live and lively weekly presentation on Wednesdays at 2 pm EST. Our program is called “How to Get Known as an Authority in Your Niche.” Here’s a link to sign up for the call on February 10. For all future sessions simple click on the events link just above and look for “How to Get Known as an Authority in Your Niche”in the far left column. Looking forward to hearing your voice and seeing your smiling face on BlitzTime where you spend half your time learning and interacting withing a group teleclass setting, and the other half in one-on-one networking conversations with other participants. Cool, huh!

SPECIAL NOTE: I didn’t want to break up the flow of my writing, AND I have to make a Big Statement that’s VERY IMPORTANT, so I am putting it here:

Whether you’re working with someone to whom you’re delegating work or you’re co-creating deliverable VIP (Valuable Intellectual Property,) I HIGHLY encourage you to come to agreements in advance of and while you work together. For example, you want to stipulate your assistants and expert helpers aren’t employees and that your JP partners aren’t partners in the legal sense where you are responsible for each others debts and other things to avoid!

(See Stewart Levine’s work on the Web 2.0 Community and Business and ResolutionWorks websites and David Coleman’s work on Virtual Collaboration on the Web 2.0 Community and Business and Collaborative Strategies websites.)

So here’s my point: Be sure to consult with an attorney to review your agreements for loopholes and other challenges.

I hope you found this article helpful. I’d love to know how. Write a comment, give me a call. Reach out and touch someone. What you’re experiencing, what you’ve learned, your wisdom, knowledge, and expertise might be just what someone else needs…

Ah, food for another post… I promise.

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