Collaboration Project Ideas That Will Expand Your Business’ Horizons

Business failure statistics are rather dismal, according to Fundera. With 20 percent of small businesses failing within the first year, and only 30 percent surviving past their tenth, succeeding might seem like an impossibility. In order for your company to survive, it must evolve and improve constantly. Once you stop and become stagnant, you’ll be crushed by the competition.

One of the most efficient methods of ‘evolution’ is collaborating with other businesses to achieve new heights. This way, you will be able to increase your reach to a new audience, and only pay for a part of it, because you’ll be in this together with other companies.

The possibilities of business collaboration projects are unlimited. Therefore, you should use your imagination, as well as do an in-depth study of your target audience. Find out what other brands those people are interested in, and start working on strategies that will bring you together for a project that will benefit you all.

Business Collaboration Ideas That Can Boost Your Company

1. Pool your marketing money for better promotion.

Are you running a small shop? Are there other small shops nearby? Does each of you lack a big marketing budget to launch some major promotion?

Collaboration can fix that in a single simple stroke. This type of business-boosting project will have you pooling resources to get your whole street/district of businesses promoted via co-marketing. For example, you can get a huge ad at a popular local newspaper or on TV. Depending on the kind of businesses you are uniting under the banner of this project, you might even take out a page in top niche magazines.

2. Start a subscription service.

The benefits of the subscription business model are many, which is obvious from its growing global popularity (Forbes). This model also offers a perfect opportunity for business collaboration. Partner up with companies that manufacture products complementary to yours, and you’ll grow your customer base exponentially.

Collaborating on a subscription box service might be a better option than launching one exclusive to your own business. The reason is simple, people are more interested in boxes filled with various goodies, instead of several variations of the same.

To make the most from this particular business collaboration project, you should create some unique products exclusive for these subscription boxes. This will allow you to attract more customers as the buyers of today are greatly attracted by limited offers.

When running a subscription project to boost your own company, consider partnering up with more than one brand. You should also design several boxes for different collaborations to maximize your outreach. Note that you’ll need to use subscription management software to handle this type of project properly. Similar subscription billing and management software to not only process your payments without a hitch, but also to monitor the overall profitability of this project.

This project will work out best if you create themed boxes. For example, think of ‘shop the look services’. The ‘look’ in question can include not only clothing, but also accessories, makeup, shoes, and even décor of the room a model stands in. Create a catalog of such niche combos with your collaborators, and spread it all over the place. But don’t limit yourself to one type of product only. Get inspired by subscription box services that break conventions, like boxes for stressed out people or geeks.

3. Collaborate on the creation of new products

What is it that you produce? Can it be combined with something else to create a new product that your audience will love? For example, if you produce homemade jam, you can collaborate with a pie company to create a unique line of special pies.

Apply the same principle to your line of business to determine what exactly you can use to enhance the products you create. From then, move to contacting the business in question and proposing a collaboration to create some kind of new product. Note that this doesn’t have to be a completely new item developed from scratch. You can simply create a product combo that will be more in demand than two products separately. Think of it like manufacturers of paints and brushes collaborating to create sets that include both.

This particular project will pair extremely well with a subscription service. As the subscription business model allows for regular breaks between deliveries, you’ll be able to spend the time developing new products. Just be sure not to go overboard, because some business collaborations of today raise lots of questions about sanity.

4. Go from online to ‘traditional’ distribution

If you run a primarily online business, setting up a brick-and-mortar shop is not worth the investment in most cases. However, there’s no denying that selling your goods in a traditional shop can boost your sales and enhance your brand.

Therefore, you should collaborate with local retailers to start selling your wares in their shops. Note that this kind of project can work for many types of businesses, not only retailers. For example, you can work with a nearby café to set up a display of your handmade jewelry. Create something with a theme that will tie in the café itself, so your display doesn’t look completely out of place.

These types of collaborations can become unequal if not handled properly. In order to pull your weight in the project, you’ll need to market it to the best of your ability. You owe it to your new partner to bring as many of your loyal customers to them as possible.

Why Business Project Collaboration Is Worth It?

Collaborating with other businesses can be extremely stressful. It’s also a risk as you can’t be 100 percent sure that your new partners can be trusted. However, potential benefits outweigh the risks.

Advantages of inter-business collaboration include, but aren’t limited to:

• Improvement of your own business’ techniques as you learn by observing other companies.
• Increase of overall employee productivity, as you pool your talent together.
• Cutting costs of marketing, rent, etc.
• Widening your consumer outreach, and growing your network of potential business associates.
• Resolution of problems, which you cannot overcome on your own.

If you think it’s only small businesses that collaborate to cut costs and reach new customers, you should look at these top brand collaboration examples. They can give you some inspiration, but most importantly, they show exactly what kind of an amazing result you can achieve by working together with trustworthy collaborators.

Small businesses, in particular, can benefit greatly from collaborating with each other, as they have limited resources. Working together will allow everyone involved to use those resources most efficiently, and to accomplish things you cannot do on your own.

The best thing about these projects is that they are flexible and very affordable. In the majority of cases, they will require very little actual work beyond finding suitable companies to collaborate with. This means that your business will have plenty of time to continue its own development. In fact, the collaboration will allow you more freedom in this due to the extra revenue.

Author Bio:

I’m Agatha Singer, a work-from-home mom of two little nuggets. My interests range from the latest business management trends to healthy living and adventurous traveling. I always stay open to new ideas, and expertise to make my writing handy and captivating for you. I'll be happy to see you on my blog.