Growth & Strategy Conversations
Some growth is easier with another business beside you than on your own
Referral arrangements, shared deliveries, joint bids, co-selling and shared premises are all ways for small businesses to reach further than they could alone. They also fail quietly: one side does the work and the other takes the credit, or nobody wrote down who owns the customer. This session looks at how owners have set such arrangements up, what to agree before starting, and how to test one cheaply.
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An alliance borrows someone else’s strengths. It also borrows their weaknesses.
A small business often lacks one thing it needs to grow: reach into a new customer group, delivery capacity, a certification, a showroom, a skill it cannot yet afford to hire. Another business may have exactly that and a gap of its own. Working together can fill both gaps faster than either could alone.
But an alliance is also a dependency. If a partner’s quality slips, your customers blame you. If the partner stops, your plans stall. If the arrangement was only a handshake, memories differ within a year. This session is about going in with eyes open: knowing what you want, what you are offering, and how to leave.
What the session covers
36 topics across 7 areas. Seven parts, from the first idea to the review at ninety days.
The Forms an Alliance Can TakeFrom light to heavy.6
- Referral arrangements
- Co-marketing: shared events, offers or content
- Shared delivery, storage or premises
- Supplying each other, or one supplying the other’s customers
- Joint bids for work neither could win alone
- A jointly owned venture, which is the heaviest form
Start with the lightest form that could answer your need. You can always deepen it.
Knowing What You NeedStart from the gap, not the partner.4
Owners who begin with a partner in mind often find the alliance solves nothing in particular. Owners who begin with the gap choose better.
- Which gap is slowing growth: customers, capacity, skill, credibility or cash?
- Could you fill it by hiring, buying or learning instead?
- What would success look like in ninety days?
- What are you able to offer in return?
Finding and Choosing a PartnerFit matters more than size.5
- Businesses that serve your customers with something different
- Values, standards and the way they treat their own customers
- Their reputation, asked about with people who have dealt with them
- Whether both sides gain, not only you
- Whether they are in a position to deliver what they promise
Ask how they have worked with others before. Do not rely only on what they say about themselves.
Agreeing the TermsWrite down what you would rather not argue about later.6
- What each side will do, and by when
- Who owns the customer relationship
- How money is shared, and how it is counted and paid
- Who handles complaints and returns
- Use of each other’s name and brand
- How either side can end it, and what happens then
For anything beyond a simple referral, have a lawyer read the written terms. This session does not give legal advice.
Trust, Information and the LawWhat to share, and what to be careful about.5
India’s competition law looks at agreements between businesses, and the rules differ for competitors and for businesses at different stages of the chain. We do not interpret them here. We show where the questions arise and suggest taking qualified advice before anything involving a competitor.
- Customer data, prices and costs: share only what the work needs
- A written confidentiality understanding where it matters
- Why agreements between competitors about prices, territories or customers can be a problem under competition law
- Why joint ventures are treated differently, and why the details matter
- Handling personal data of customers lawfully
Running a Ninety-Day TrialProve it small before it grows.5
- One narrow, measurable thing to try first
- Who is responsible on each side
- A fortnightly fifteen-minute check-in
- What numbers you will look at
- A decision date: continue, change or stop
When to Step BackMost alliances end. The good ones end cleanly.5
- Early signs: slow replies, missed promises, complaints
- Raising a problem directly and early
- Handing back customers and materials fairly
- What to say to customers when an alliance ends
- What you learnt for the next one
Exercises owners do in the session
- List ten kinds of business that serve your customers differently, and pick two to explore
- Fill in a one-page alliance brief for one of them
- Draft the three questions you would ask a possible partner’s past customers
- Write a ninety-day trial plan with a decision date
What participants leave with
- The alliance brief and trial plan they drafted
- A checklist of points to cover in writing
- A list of questions to take to a lawyer
- A simple review sheet for the ninety-day check
What this session is not
- Legal or financial advice
- A matchmaking service or a promise of introductions
- A guarantee that any alliance will bring growth
How the session runs
A facilitated conversation of around two hours, in a small group. A practitioner who has worked with business partnerships describes how alliances are usually set up and where they go wrong. Owners then draft a one-page brief for one possible alliance of their own and talk it through with the group. The brief stays with each owner; nothing is shared unless they choose to.
What your students leave with
- A clear picture of the different kinds of alliance, from a simple referral to a joint venture
- A shortlist of the kinds of business that could be a good partner for theirs
- A one-page alliance brief: what each side gives, gets and decides
- The points worth putting in writing before any work starts
- A 90-day trial plan with a way to judge whether to continue
- Awareness of where competition law and confidentiality need care
Scheduled sessions
Nothing scheduled yet
Sessions are arranged with a college once a date is agreed. Ask us and we will find the right person for it.
A student rather than a college? See what is coming up, or ask your placement team to host this.
Start with the gap, choose the lightest form, write the terms, and test it for ninety days.
Tell us who your students are and what stage they are at. Sessions are free for participants.