How To Build Strategic Partnerships and Grow Your Business: for Entrepreneurs and Freelancers

hi everybody welcome back in this video I want to talk about partnerships specifically how do you build partnerships and what can partnerships do for your business in my channel I talk a lot about the consulting economy or how the environment of work these days is moving towards independent contracting and there's a whole lot of studies and a lot of data on how this is happening and I talked about in previous video so I won't go into it now but essentially you have to remember that even as a freelancer independent contractor it doesn't have to be just you in your business you can develop partnerships that can really propel your business to the next level I'm talking about developing a broader level of connections and partnerships beyond things like a linkedin network which I call a weak network we're going to talk a little bit about how you build a stronger more influential network for your business so let's talk a little bit about what partnerships can do for you the number one reason you bring on partners is that it can bring in more business because you're now interacting with in developing relationships with a broader range of business partners your ability to attract new business and your funnel for new business coming towards you is 2x it's 3x how many partners that you have number two is that with partners you can actually take on bigger projects you can take on more complex projects than you have before because you'll have a broader skill set and more bandwidth to do the work number three is extra brainpower and this is by having partners who have broader and bigger and different skill sets than yours you are increasing the brainpower of your business it's not just you thinking through and trying to solve the problems it's more than just you the fourth way the partnerships can help you is that it can help you learn new techniques it can help you learn new things and new ways of doing things new methodologies by developing and having relationships with partners it brings more knowledge of how to do things to the table and by proximity you will learn how to do more things by being involved with a greater range of partners another thing that partnerships can do for you is they can build your management skills so by having more people and a more complexed environment that you're working in and taking on bigger projects it can build your ability to manage people and manage projects number six is that it builds your communication skills by having more complex projects and a greater number of people they have to communicate to it will de facto increase your need to develop great communication skills number seven is you have to practice reciprocal business relationships and this is that you have to think about what's in it for them as well as what's in it for you you may need to take their prices their fees into consideration as you're developing a project or a proposal the eighth thing that partnerships can do for you is it can spread your reputation and your influence by interacting with a greater range of partners and possibly a greater range of clients your reputation will increase and your level of influence will increase number nine is that it increases your meaningful network and as I said before not just a weak network of acquaintances or LinkedIn contacts a meaningful strong network of people that you're doing business with and partnering with as you do that business number ten is you're going to have a more fulfilling career you're going to be doing bigger work better work you're going to have more relationships more communication with people you're going to be learning more things so you're going to have a more fulfilling career number eleven is you're gonna have more fun because you're gonna be doing bigger and better things you're going having more context and learning more again you're gonna have a great career and in that great career you're gonna be having a lot more fun doing what you're doing and number twelve is when it comes down to it it builds good karma by developing partnerships and working in partnership with people you're going to be able to help them succeed you're going to be able to help yourself succeed you're going to be able to help clients succeed in their businesses and more clients and bigger clients succeed and all of this is just going to bring more good things to you so how do you go about finding partners you want to reach out to people who have complementary skill sets so if you're a designer you don't want to just reach out to other designers you want to reach out to copy writers or animators or web developers you want to find people with complementary skill sets that will enable you to take on bigger and more complex jobs than you've historically been taking on for yourself and where do you find them you find them and you know they could be old school alumni they could be LinkedIn contacts that you've reached out to and started a role more meaningful conversation with you can meet them through regular old-fashioned networking meetups conferences you can meet them through associations they could possibly be old co-workers at old jobs that you used to work at there's a million ways that you can meet new partners so then what do you do after you've found or located these new partners you want to take them to coffee or if you don't live in the same city you want to have a video conference I find video conferencing really great because you can see the person you're talking to and it's easier to develop a more personal relationship you want to ask them about their lives ask them about where they live their family their relationships their dogs their kids you want to get to know them personally as well as professionally eighty percent of people out there are open to new partnerships so don't be worried about rejection yes there going to be people out there who have too much on their plate or they just don't have time to develop a nurture those new connections but they're going to be in the minority I absolutely guarantee you you want to get another work history you want to get to know the clients they've worked on the kind of things they like to do what really ignites their passion and you also want to ask what their fees are like how much they charge for what they do because when you think about it if you're bringing them in as a partner you're gonna have to mark up what they do pay their fee but then also for managing the project a larger project you want to have a little bit of a markup on their fees to cover your interaction with them and then you also want to talk about what is their favorite mode of communication do they like slack do they like email do they like a regular phone call what's the best way to engage with them and after you get to know them a little bit you want to ask them is there anything you can do for them you have to give in order to receive so offering up a little bit of something for free is a great way to cement a relationship ask if there's anything that have going on that you could help out with in any way you also want to check out examples of their work because you want to make sure that they're at a level and are going to be bringing something in a table in this partnership that you can really use and that you can feel proud of now over time you want to stay in touch you want to reach out to them every six or eight weeks just ping them with an email or a text just to say hi just to keep that relationship warm so they don't forget about you and then when they're getting in new work or they're working with partners that they're keeping you in mind as well you also to make sure that you stay out there you keep dating you keep looking for and meeting new people because you don't want to get locked in to just a small set of partners because things happen you know people get hit by a bus or they join a company or take a full-time job or they decide not to do what they're doing at all anymore you don't want to get caught with your pants down you want to have a broad network of partners that you can draw on when you need them and when you start engaging with them you want to start with low stakes interactions you don't want to bring a brand-new partner into some gigantic really important high-profile job that you just have to hit the ball out of the park on start with a loader stake interaction and also when you're working with people pay really close attention to their communication style and to their level of organization and their promptness and coming to meetings those sorts of things are really important when you're working with someone and their work with you is going to be reflection of you and your consultancy with your client so you want to pay attention to how well they run their own business so when it comes down to a partnerships can really breathe new life into your business by developing partnerships and working with those partners you can increase and grow the number of clients you work on you can increase your business development efforts you can increase the scope of the jobs that you're working you'll be increasing the influence you have in the marketplace and your presence in the marketplace and improving your reputation by showing up more in the marketplace you're going to have greater brand recall for your particular brand your freelance brand your consulting brand so that's it I hope you enjoyed this video on partnerships and the value of partnerships for your consulting business freelance practice and if you did please hit subscribe below so you can see my videos when they come out and from very how brand design and my strategic branding and designing agency thank you so much for watching and if you need help with your brand strategy your brand design or your professional creative career please reach out to me at Philip Van Dusen comm and let's see what we can do to take you to the next level and with that thanks again for watching bye for now [Music]

Channel: Philip VanDusen

Views: 41,342

Keywords: Partnership, entrepreneur motivation, strategic partnerships, graphic design, philip vandusen, verhaal brand design, small business, personal branding, entrepreneur advice, graphic design career, digital marketing, personal growth, creative director, graphic design career advice, personal development, career advice, marketing strategies, small business startup, design careers, how to, graphic designer, marketing strategies for small business, Marketing tips

Id: 4NqVrn67k5k

Length: 9min 26sec (566 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 12 2018