Online Business Collaborations: How They Can Help You Step Up Your Online Business

It’s no wonder that collaborations in the online business community are increasing in popularity. When you team up with another business you are able to achieve several outcomes that would be much harder, if not impossible, to achieve on your own. Collaborations allow you to bring curated expertise to your audience, they provide you with the opportunity to reach new audience members who could benefit from your work, they expand your network of trusted partners and they elevate you as an expert in what you do. When setting up a collaboration, there are several key business and legal considerations to navigate before moving forward. Let’s dive in and explore them. 

Collaborations allow you to bring curated expertise to your audience

We can’t be experts at everything, nor would we want to be. As you’ve niched down into the products and services you provide to your customers, you’ve attracted your ideal customers that need what you offer. But often we find our customers asking for answers to questions that are outside of our zone of genius. While we may be able to speak generally about these topics because we’ve tackled them ourselves in our own businesses, we lack the depth of knowledge to provide information that can truly solve our customer’s problems in these related areas. But your customers asked you, because they know, like and trust you. Enter the collaboration. Now you’re able to offer your audience a unique combination of expertise - yours and that of your collaborator.

By inviting an expert to speak to our customers on a particular topic, you accomplish several things.  First, you have curated the expert by locating someone trustworthy that shares your business values. Your selection of a collaboration partner is an extension of your customers’ trust and confidence in you. Your customers will trust your recommendation about the expert because they trust you. You have curated the expert for them, making them feel confident in signing up to hear what this expert has to say. In an increasingly crowded online space, this is a huge benefit to your audience as it helps them locate the answers and expertise quickly and in alignment with their business values.  

Collaborations help you grow your customer base

In the same way that you may invite experts to share content with your customers, you should also seek out opportunities to provide valuable content to other business owners' audiences. By speaking to the customers of another business owner, you are able to reach a new audience, and you expand your reputation as both an expert and a valuable collaborator. You might seek opportunities where you offer to present your expertise on a topic, or alternatively you might look for cross promotional opportunities.  You might develop a series of topics that you can readily present to different audiences, or create custom content designed to meet the specific needs of a particular collaborator. By offering your services to share your expertise with other business owners, you’ll also quickly expand your network. Having a solid network of business owners ready to refer you to their customers and other business owners will help you grow your business. 

Collaborations Help You Stand Out as an Expert

When you open yourself up to collaborations, you’ll become recognized as a leader in your industry. Speaking on topics you are passionate and knowledgeable about will encourage prospective customers to hear what you have to say. The online business community is becoming increasingly crowded. There is still plenty of room for businesses offering true value and expertise to their customers, but it is getting harder to get noticed and stand out in the crowd. Becoming known as an expert is one way to do this. 

Avenues for Collaboration

The sky's the limit when it comes to opportunities to team up with another online business. Here are three popular ways to collaborate. First, you might invite speakers into your community to share their knowledge and expertise on topics of interest to your audience. Similarly, you might promote yourself as an expert to speak to other audiences.  These collaborations can be one-way, in that the person you invite to speak does not necessarily invite you to speak in return.  Not all collaborations need to be mutual, and sometimes it doesn’t make sense for a guest presenter to offer a return engagement. Second, two business owners might agree to swap presentations or promotions to each other’s audiences. With this type of cross-promotion, each expert has the opportunity to expand their reach and provide valuable content to a new audience. Third, you might jointly create new content with a collaborator. In this scenario, the two of you work together to create something entirely new to present to both of your audiences. You might create a blog, video, podcast, course, webinar, membership or even a free resource. Collaborations provide unlimited opportunities to think outside the box, innovate, be a leader in your industry, expand the reach of your offerings and grow your audience of loyal customers. 

How to Choose Your Collaboration Partner

You’ve no doubt heard the saying that people do business with people they know, like and trust. The same is true for collaborations. You’ll want to find a collaboration partner that’s in alignment with you and your business values and that your audience will easily come to know, like and trust. And remember, even though you may have been following someone for a while and feel like you know them very well and they align with your personal and business values, that person may not have had the opportunity to get to know you. Even if you know and believe in your heart that this person would make an amazing collaboration partner, you’ll want to give that person an opportunity to get to know you. If you identify someone that you think would make an awesome collaboration partner but that person doesn’t yet know who you are, see if you can locate a mutual friend or acquaintance to make an introduction. Having a mutual friend vouch for you can go a long way toward making the collaboration happen. If you can’t find someone to introduce you, reach out through a direct message on social media or through email. If you have places where this person can view your work, provide them with links so they have an opportunity to learn more about you before getting to any details about a collaboration. Remember the know, like and trust factor is at play here, and both participants in the collaboration will need to have it for the collaboration to be a success. 

Another way to locate collaboration partners is to join a community designed to promote collaborations and connect potential collaborators.  My absolute favorite platform for meeting entrepreneurs interested in collaborations is Collaboration Station, operated by Meg Burrage. Meg is an expert on the Kajabi platform, and self-described connector and motivator. She has created the Collaboration Station to make it as easy as possible to let people know how you want to collaborate and to meet potential collaborators. You can learn more about Collaboration Station Collaboration Station  (Note that this is an affiliate link, and if you make a purchase I’ll receive a commission, at no additional cost to you.) 

What if it Doesn't Work Out? 

Don’t be deterred from seeking out collaborations because you’re worried they won’t work out. When you work on a project with a collaborator, there’s always a chance things can go wrong. Remember, most collaborators decide to collaborate because they want it to work out. It’s important to remember this if things don’t go as planned so you can determine how best to exit the collaboration with grace. It’s a small world we live in, and chances are you are going to encounter this person again, especially if you work in similar or related fields or industries. While there are many specific reasons why a collaboration might fail, there are two primary reasons that stand out.  Both of these reasons can be managed up front and increase the chances for more successful collaborations.  

The first main reason collaborations may fail is because the collaborators didn’t manage their expectations up front. Each collaborator needs to be clear about what they want to get out of the collaboration, with herself and her co-collaborator. Misaligned expectations can easily lead to disagreements about how the parties should perform certain tasks or how to structure certain parts of the collaboration. The second main reason collaborations may fail is due to a misalignment of the business values or personalities of the collaborators. If collaborators haven’t yet had the opportunity to work alongside one another, they may not fully appreciate the personality quirks or business values of the other. By taking a little time to get to know potential collaborators, you are more likely to partner with a compatible collaborator.  

Sort out the Business Details

Once you’re ready to move forward with the collaboration, you’ll need to nail down some key details. Think of these as the who, what, where, when, why and how of your collaboration. By taking extra time up front to hammer out the details, you’re more likely to have a successful collaboration and avoid disputes with your collaborator. Some of the details you’ll want to work out include what is the collaboration about, what are the goals and purposes of it, who is it designed to serve, when will it happen, how will it be delivered, how will it be promoted, who will create the promotional materials, will it be free or paid, will one or both collaborators receive any compensation, when and how will collaborators be allowed to promote their own content and how can the collaboration product be used again in the future. How you answer these questions will depend on the type of collaboration you are planning. What is critical is that you map out the expectations of the collaborators at the beginning of the collaboration. This way, everyone’s expectations are in alignment, key details are not overlooked or duplicated, and one or both collaborators don’t end up frustrated with the process or with negative feelings toward their collaboration partner. 

Put Your Online Business Collaboration in a Written Collaboration Agreement

Now that you’ve identified a co-collaborator and a collaboration project, you’ll want to understand the legal relationship between you and your collaborator and you’ll want to put your agreement in writing.  In Part 2 of the Collaboration Series, we’ll explore the legal relationship between two collaborators, and in Part 3 of the Collaboration Series, we’ll explore the elements of a good collaboration agreement.  Be sure to check back on the Blog over the next 2 weeks to catch Parts 2 and 3.