10 Reasons Why Leveraging Relationships Helps Businesses Thrive

Leveraging your relationships is a great way to help your business thrive. When you use

the expertise and experience of other businesses, your own business will benefit. Renee C. Quinn, known as the "Social Media Diva" by her impressive fan population, wrote this article in June of last year about leveraging your online business relationships successfully and effectively. Here are ten reasons why leveraging relationships helps businesses thrive.

The "Of Many One" Philosophy

The United States of America was founded on the ability of different individuals from different cultures to combine their efforts, set aside their differences, and focus in tandem on a unified goal. Coins minted in the United States feature a Latin phrase: E Pluribus Unum. This patriotic phrase translates to "Of Many, One" and describes the enduring philosophy of the United States. This philosophy, however, is more than just a political ideology. It is also an excellent principle for good business development and increased business profitability. When different businesses offering different products and services come together, they can rely on one another to meet the needs of the collective and do better at satisfying the consumer population.

What You Don't Have, They Do

Imagine, for example, an old-fashioned street in an average American town. On this street are several different businesses: an office supply business, a small grocer, a clothing store, a shoe store, an advertising business, a small bank, an attorney's office, etc. If each business stuck to its own guns and refused to offer assistance to the others, each business would one day encounter a problem to which they were unable to find a solution. The clothing store may run out of office supplies. The office supply store might need a new marketing strategy. This is a very basic analogy, but it does emphasize the importance of leveraging business relationships to help your own business thrive. When businesses trade services and solutions with one another, they are able to rely on another business's unique set of experiences, which increases success all around.

Reach Expansion

Leveraging business relationships can expand the reach of your business. Tapping into the customers and relationships of other businesses can expose new consumers to your products and services. When you insert yourself in large business circles, your own circles start to grow.

Conversation Marketing

Business relationships can also help to increase word of mouth marketing. When other businesses start talking about your business, their customers and contacts will hear about your products and services. If customers trust a brand to recommend a company within another industry, you may see a flock of new consumers come your way.

Big Business Helps Small Business with Large Tasks

A big business may be able to assist a smaller business by taking on tasks that the smaller business can no longer complete. Customer service, product transport, effective marketing strategies, and the management of an online presence are all tasks that require a huge budget, a lot of effort, and a great deal of manpower. Big businesses are able to provide this to smaller businesses, and many small businesses leverage their relationships to access great deals on outsourcing these tasks to a larger company.

Small Business Helps Big Business

Small businesses are not helpless in the relationship leveraging scenario. Many small businesses connect with larger businesses because they are able to offer unique products or services that will benefit the larger businesses. Consider, for example, one of the largest retail establishments in the nation. Target brand stores are filled with products created by smaller companies with lesser known brands and labels. These businesses benefit from having their products featured in Target stores because more consumers will be exposed to the products. Target benefits from the craftsmanship and artistry of the smaller brands by ensuring that customers have access to high quality products that they love. This is a perfect example of mutual relationship leveraging.

Improved Industry Expertise

If you are just starting a business, it's important to leverage your business relationships so that you can tap into the industry expertise and industry knowledge that you will need to make your business thrive. Without a few industry tips, the right industry contacts, and solutions to common business problems, your business may be unable to survive its first year.

An Initial Business Boost

When you form relationships with business executives, marketing experts, and sales professionals, you can leverage those relationships to give your business a much-needed boost in the early stages of its survival. In return, you can offer a worthwhile service or product to the businesses from which you have benefited.

Different Problems, Different Solutions

Leveraging business relationships works to help businesses thrive simply because no one business is going to have the exact same set of problems as another business. One business may be struggling to personally connect with customers and another business may be struggling to reach a wider customer population. These two businesses have vastly different problems, but both businesses are able to provide solutions to the other. The business with population reach issues can benefit from the knowledge and experience of the business with a larger customer base. The business that is struggling to personally connect with a huge number of consumers can benefit from the more personal and intimate strategies of the boutique business. When different businesses pool their efforts, new solutions to problems can be discovered.

Business Itself is a System of Relationships

Business, at its core, is based on a system of relationships. It is absolutely impossible to conduct business alone. At its very smallest unit, a business transaction requires two different people. When business is taken care of, an active relationship occurs. There are many reasons why leveraging business relationships is key to a business's survival. We are living in one of the toughest and most tenuous economies in history. Consumers are wary of dealing with new businesses without established reputations. Consumers are wary of dealing with large, corporate businesses. Consumers are wary of dealing with small, intimate, "Mom and Pop" businesses. With all of this consumer wariness, businesses must rely on their relationships with one another in order to survive and thrive in this economic climate. By pooling resources, sharing customers, and working together to create unique solutions to business problems, the success rate of the entire business community will slowly start to rise.