Can a small business survive? As the economy got worse Wal-Mart did just fine. When huge companies got in trouble politicians bailed them out because they were too big to fail. But small business lost revenues and their credit dried up, and the only help the small business owner got has been the threat of higher taxes and new mandates. So what's the answer? How does a small business draw in more customers while cutting their costs? And when the economy really starts growing, how can a small business get more than it's share of the rebounding spending?
Small businesses need a way to keep their natural advantages — innovation, nimbleness, customer responsiveness, and an ownership culture — while neutralizing their larger competitors' size advantages. Small businesses need a way to become known by every potential customer. Small businesses need a way to expand their solutions without having to invest more. They need a way to reach more customers without adding employees. They need a way to buy less expensively and operate more efficiently. Small businesses need to create Multi-Partner Alliances.
Results: A Multi-Partner Alliance (MPA) allows a business to stay small while getting many of the benefits of becoming bigger. Alliance members can combine their individual products or services into more complete solutions that are more attractive to customers. They can pool their marketing efforts and obtain many times the impact for the same investment. They can reduce their costs by buying in larger volume, and can even stop doing some things and let their partners do it instead.
Small businesses need a way to keep their natural advantages — innovation, nimbleness, customer responsiveness, and an ownership culture — while neutralizing their larger competitors' size advantages. Small businesses need a way to become known by every potential customer. Small businesses need a way to expand their solutions without having to invest more. They need a way to reach more customers without adding employees. They need a way to buy less expensively and operate more efficiently. Small businesses need to create Multi-Partner Alliances.
Results: A Multi-Partner Alliance (MPA) allows a business to stay small while getting many of the benefits of becoming bigger. Alliance members can combine their individual products or services into more complete solutions that are more attractive to customers. They can pool their marketing efforts and obtain many times the impact for the same investment. They can reduce their costs by buying in larger volume, and can even stop doing some things and let their partners do it instead.