Creating New Products Through Collaboration

When you’re looking to expand the range of products that your business offers, one opportunity is to consider collaborating with another creator – combining efforts to create a new product that can be sold by both of you! Not only will you be able to draw from another person’s talent, you’ll also be able to create lasting business relationships.

These will extend to that businesses customers, who you would be building a connection with. These connections can make a huge difference to small businesses. This guide will explain collaborations, and how to make them productive for you!

What is Your Business Great At?

The first step in planning collaborations is identifying your business’ strengths: what would you bring to the table in a collaborative effort?

This is how you’ll be able to entice other business owners into engaging into collaborating. If you can show that you’re really great at producing a certain item, or a whiz with marketing within a certain niche, it’s much more compelling than just making ‘cold’ offers to other businesses without a proposal in hand.

Where Could Your Business Benefit?

Just as critical as understanding your strengths is understanding what other businesses are really great at. For example, if you notice that another creator makes amazing designs that would look fantastic on your products – this is a strength that they could bring to a potential collaboration!

Look for things that are complementary, that you couldn’t do on your own – this is where the greatest business collaborations happen.

Logistics

Especially if your business sells physical goods, you’ll want to partner with another business where you can meet in person to review samples, sketch out ideas, and create new products before your very eyes. Collaborating locally makes logistical sense, and simplifies all of the challenges of partnership. Still, this doesn’t mean that remote collaboration isn’t possible – it absolutely is! You’ll find that plenty of tools exist to allow business owners to collaborate over great distances. So, if you’re looking to explore collaborating with a person who lives far from you, don’t write off the possibility – send them an e-mail!

Come to an Agreement

Once you’ve reached out to another creator that you think you want to collaborate with, start working on what the terms of your collaboration will be. Who will do the designs? Who will manage shipping? How will profits be shared? Will both businesses sell the product?

These are examples of the types of issues that you’ll want to discuss with a potential business partner.

Communicate Together

Once you’ve started creating your products, both business owners should be communicating their collaborative effort to their audiences. This does a few things. First, your customers will be able to know who is making the item – something that is very important for consumers.

Secondly, it presents a great opportunity to amplify your marketing message, by using the communication resources of both businesses. In this sense, collaboration has a big amplifying effect for all of your products!