Strategic Business Partnerships: The Benefits of Working Together

Your business may compete head-to-head with a number of other companies, but this doesn’t mean you have to treat ALL other businesses as if they are the competition. In fact, there are real benefits in creating strategic alliances with other like-minded organisations.

When you look at the wider marketplace, you’ll see that there are businesses out there that may well compliment your offering. And by working together (rather than against each other) it’s possible to become valued strategic partners, collaborating to serve your joint customers, improve brand awareness and, ultimately, expand your target market.

If this sounds like a positive strategy, now’s the time to do your homework and start hunting down the best strategic partners for your business.

Working to serve a shared customer base

Strategic partnerships are all about finding the common ground between you and your intended partner – and this means finding the best ways to combine your efforts. If you can share the same customer audience, and create a complimentary way of meeting their needs, that creates a broader, more connected way of growing both companies.

Find a company that’s interested in forming a strategic alliance

1. Find partners in complementary sectors

If you’re an accounting firm, like us, it makes sense to partner with solicitors, lawyers and other professional services providers who can help your clients. If you're a maker of shoes it makes sense to partner with a clothing manufacturer that shares your same sense of style and purpose. The key here is to find a shared audience or customer need, and to create some real synergy between your two businesses.

2. Take part in business networking and events

To get a wider understanding of your local, or industry specific, business network, it’s worth taking part in plenty of online and offline business events. You’ll meet new people, hear about new brands and will find it easier to find your ideal strategic partner. The wider your business network, the more choices you have for an alliance.

3. Look at crossover between your target audiences

Once you’ve found a potential strategic partner, it’s important to take a detailed look at the crossover between your partner’s audience and your audience. Do they shop through the same channels? Do they fit a certain age group or social demographic? Are these customers local, or are they part of a national or global online customer base? How large is their database?

4. Cross-reference your customer databases

By sharing and comparing your client relationship management (CRM) data, you can cross-reference both sets of customer data and see where there’s overlap, or where you may already share some of the same customers. The better you understand each other’s customers, the more likely it is that you’ll find some common ground for shared marketing and promotion.

5. Run joint events and promotions

Presenting joint webinars with your strategic partner, or running joint promotions. By finding a common theme, you bring both audiences together and reinforce the alliance between your two brands. You also reduce the expenditure by sharing the costs and reach a wider audience.

6. Combine your R&D efforts

To move your alliance forward, you can also try combining your research and development (R&D) activity, to find new products, new services and new ways of keeping your joint customers happy. By sharing the time, costs and effort of developing new offerings, both companies will benefit – and you keep your businesses at the cutting edge of their respective sectors or specialisms.

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Why life's big milestones are a reason to check your life insurances

By Curo Financial Services • 21 Mar, 2024

Traditionally, life’s big milestones were often summed up as getting married, buying a house, having a baby and later settling into retirement. And while all of these are still momentous and memorable life moments, today there are several other modern milestones to add to that list. These could be launching your own side hustle, investing in a property with a friend, choosing to have a child on your own, or deciding to travel in a campervan. Aside from all these moments being a cause for celebration, these milestones also mark an important point in your life to reconsider the security you have in place to not only protect yourself and everything you’ve worked towards but also the ones you love. Considering Life Insurances Big changes in your life are a time to take stock of the things you’ve achieved, your future goals and what’s important to you. And more often than not, life’s big milestones come with added financial responsibility. For this reason, it’s important to consider how you would continue to meet these responsibilities if something were to happen to you. Pooling money with family or friends to buy property can be a great way to break into the property market, however, it comes with its own unique considerations. In particular, having a plan for how you will manage and share the financial responsibility which extends to how you would cover both your shares of the mortgage if something were to happen to either of you. Life Insurance, Critical Illness Insurance and Total and Permanent Disability Insurance (TPD), are all ways to help protect yourself and people that are important to you, helping ensure that if you passed away or could never return to gainful employment, neither your friends or your family would be left to cover the cost of your financial commitment. Similarly, if you were diagnosed with a Critical Illness or experience a traumatic event that left you totally and permanently disabled, you would have lump sum payment to help offer you financial security and assist with ongoing expenses, or debts. Considering Income Protection While big life achievements are generally a result of considerable planning and preparation, you can’t always predict what will happen in life. This means that if you’re considering launching your own venture as your next big milestone, it can be helpful to have protections in place that can help prevent your goals from being railroaded in the event of an illness or accident. Often, increasing earning power is a motivator to launch a business, so it may be worthwhile considering how you would maintain this financial security if something were to happen to you. Income Protection can give you an alternative source of income if you’re temporarily unable to work due to an illness or injury that's left you totally or partially disabled. Whether you’ve launched a solo side hustle or are working with a small team, it can help you stay on top of personal living expenses, medical costs and business expenses, leaving you to focus on recovering. Every Australian is different and has their own unique ambitions, goals and milestones. If you’d like help reviewing your personal financial situation, please reach out. Any advice is general in nature only and has been prepared without considering your needs, objectives or financial situation. Before acting on it you should consider its appropriateness for you, having regard to those factors.

Reserve Bank of Australia Update - March 2024

By Lipins Partners • 19 Mar, 2024

The March Board meeting of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) concluded with a decision to maintain the official cash rate at 4.35%, following a thorough review of recent economic indicators. The official statement for this decision is available on the RBA's website .

Tax planning helps you do more with your money

By Lipins Partners • 05 Mar, 2024

Tax planning is a strategic approach to managing your business’ financial affairs, with the aim of legally minimising your tax liability. In other words, you plan ahead to make sure you pay the taxes you should be paying, but not a penny more. Working with your tax adviser, you can look for deductions, credits, exemptions and tax-saving strategies that will help to optimise your company’s overall tax position. How does tax planning affect your business? The primary goal of tax planning is to reduce the amount of taxes your business owes. But it’s also about making sure you stay compliant with all the tax laws and regulations applicable to your business. But what are the main advantages? Let’s take a look at five of the big benefits of careful, strategic tax planning. By planning your tax across the year, you can: Maximise your profits – strategic tax planning helps your company find the best available tax incentives, deductions and credits. This reduces your overall tax liability, cuts your annual tax costs and increases your overall profitability as a business. Boost your cashflow – tax planning is a great way to open up more liquid cash and achieve a better cashflow position for the business. When you cut down the company’s tax payments, that frees up cash and helps you achieve a positive cashflow position. Stay compliant and mitigate your risk – being proactive with your tax planning keeps the company compliant with the relevant tax laws and regulations. It’s a sensible way to tick the compliance boxes and reduce the risk of costly penalties and legal issues. Drive your strategic growth – smart use of tax planning helps you reduce your tax costs and reassign those funds to your strategic business goals. It’s a golden opportunity to invest in areas that promote long-term growth and competitiveness. Give your business a competitive edge – if managed well, efficient tax planning leads to lower operational costs for the business. This gives you a competitive edge when it comes to pricing, innovation, sales and revenue generation. How can our firm help you with tax planning? Getting strategic with your tax planning has many advantages for your financial stability as a business. But to maximise your planning, it’s important to work with an experienced adviser. As your tax adviser, we’ll help you look ahead across the whole financial year, looking for the opportunities to reduce your tax liability and find the best tax deductions and incentives. If you’d like to know more about the impact of tax planning, we’ll be happy to explain. Get in touch to talk about tax planning.