Partner Up: Why Your Small Business Should Think Big

It's not easy being small. Part of the reason that big businesses tend to grow and small businesses often fail is that big businesses have deep pockets. They also have relationships with other companies that can help bring them opportunities, contacts and support.

But, just because your business is small doesn't mean you can't get in on that action, too. By joining an industry consortium that combines small and large firms in the same industry, you can capitalize on the size of your competitors and industry associates.

One such group, called ng Connect, brings together companies ranging from Atlantic Records to Alcatel-Lucent and helps its members share ideas and benefit from each others' collective knowledge.

One member of ng Connect, Mobideo, a project management and logistics firm,has benefited from membership in many ways. Its CEO, Yaron Eppel, tells BusinessNewsDaily how other businesses can benefit from joining an industry consortium.

• Branding: Connection to a larger name brand organization means you gain from their existing branding.
• Decision makers: Access to decision makers at large companies.  The opportunity to have an ally within these large companies, including the founding corporation.
• Showcase and distribution:  Access to showcase and distribution points offered by the group.
• Marketing to new companies: Access to clients and partners of the association creator and other member companies and gaining new market knowledge.
• Information sharing and collaboration: Access to thought leadership of the association members (big and small) for information exchange, learning, best practices and opportunity brainstorming.
• Product creation: Access to other association partners for opportunity to co-brand/co-create products.  Potential to realize that 1+1+1=10, that instead of just two companies working together, you can have access to multiple companies to help drive innovation and co-brand and create more in a faster timeframe with better results.  Also, being able to collaborate with these partners on potential new solutions that use multiple companies' offerings .
• Access to free research and development: Research conducted by the department from within the association creator’s company as well as many of the larger member companies.
• Market expansion: Whether through new product creation, or partnership development with the industry association creator and partners —the ability to expand business to new verticals, internationally, etc. are a huge asset.  Many times as a small company, these opportunities were not readily available within the company’s traditional market segment parameters.
• Networking: Expansion of the business social network to include new highly intelligent, knowledgeable, motivated people who are understand that business is based on the exchange of support and are willing to offer theirs. When the industry association holds an event, smaller companies have the opportunity to connect with some of the most relevant companies in their space, and other industries.  It’s akin to the world’s best networking event.
• Knowledge expansion:  The opportunity to see cutting-edge technologies that are just starting to come to light for new industries, and thus grow one’s own knowledge, imagination and sights of opportunity.

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