Partnerships aren’t for the shy. They are for the innovative and the risk takers!

Many times people back away from the idea of a potential partnerships because they’ve heard the horror stories of partnerships gone wrong like:

The Sears collaboration with the Kardashians. It went wrong because the Kardashian Collection clothing line never really took off and somewhere around 2015 Sears drastically slashed prices and quietly stopped promoting the brand. Many fashion bloggers (self included) weren’t very impressed with the quality or the style of the clothing and couldn’t imagine the sisters wearing anything they were selling. For me personally Sears just has such an appliance feel and isn’t somewhere I’d think to go to snag the next “hot” fashion item.

Facebook Creator Mark Zuckerberg and (off the masthead) Co-Creator of Facebook Eduardo Severin were a messy pairing and an even worse partnership. While Zuckerberg worked on the product end of Facebook and Severin was assigned the task of working on the business side of the start up–communication and lack of mutual vision is what was ultimately the downfall of this duo. From Severin freezing Facebook’s bank account to Zuckerberg reducing Severin’s shares in the company to a minuscule amount and having him redacted from the company’s history–it didn’t matter that they met at Harvard–they both ended up on court telling their sides of the story, although Severin swears there are no hard feelings.

Ionic Breeze and Sharper Image created a partnership from hell. I loved The Sharper Image brand. For me it said quality, unique and a bit pricy. In an article on UpCounsel it says, “The Sharper Image was at the top of the retail market in the mid-1990s. Its products were seen on celebrities, in movies, and just about everywhere else. However, it was the company’s partnership with straight-to-infomercial product Ionic Breeze that doomed it to failure. After joining forces, the company found out that Ionic Breeze not only didn’t purify the air, as the fast-talking media men claimed – but that it actually polluted the air. Many costly lawsuits followed, which sucked the Sharper Image dry. The company went out of business in 2008, forever relegated to the dark corners of business nostalgia.” They closed all physical stores in 2008 and sold online. In 2017 they returned with a temporary pop up store–hopefully breathing life back into a top tier brand.

But there are some partnerships that are quite whimsical. For instance, on a flight to Chicago a couple months back I was introduced to my new favorite snack. It’s a maple flavored cookie from a company called Byrd–that is thin and crisp and quite tasty. It was an in flight snack provided by United Airlines and recently replaced another very popular snack. This was not only a great little way to thank passengers for flying United, but a really awesome way to introduce them to a new brand or one they aren’t familiar with.

The reality is that thousands of people start new businesses each day, month, year and a partnership is a great way to grow a brand and synergistic momentum. Melanie Trepanier, brand manager for SierraSil Health Inc., says that brands join forces “to leverage each other’s expertise in order to build a unique experience for their customers.”

I’d like provide a few takeaways for those considering a partnership:

• Make it more than just about money–make it about vision, make it about helping people, make it about changing the world.
• Know the history of your partner and/or their brand. Partnerships will only ever work if both parties are transparent and have clearly defined goals and expectations.
• Communication is KEY to success partnerships–always keep the lines of communication open–wide open and schedule meetings often.
• Make sure you have a nearly defined decision-making process and an overall structure or SOP (standard operating procedure) for your partnership.
• As a potential partner make sure you’re bringing something to the table of equal value i.e your social media platform to their product or brand buzz.

Inc. Magazine published an article that shares “6 Ways to Spot a Bad Business Partner” and Forbes wrote an article titled, “Why Partnership is Harder than Marriage.” Entrepreneur followed suit with a piece titled, “Why Partnerships are the Kiss of Death.” Nevertheless, don’t overlook potential partnerships because you fear losing control of what you’ve built. Look at the big picture and always weigh the cons as well as the pros.

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