Gary’s 10 Reasons To Form A Strategic Business Alliance A strategic alliance is when two or more businesses join together for a set period of time. The businesses, usually, are not in direct competition, but have similar products or services that are directed toward the same target audience. Below are ten reasons to create a strategic alliance. 1. You could offer your customers a larger variety of products or services. This will allow you to spend less time and money developing new products to sell. 2. Your number of sales people will increase because you're combining with other business. You won't have to spend to time and money hiring new employees. 3. Your marketing and advertising budget will increase. When you form a strategic alliance with other businesses you both will share the advertising and marketing costs. 4. You can now offer your existing customers more back-end and upsell products. This will increase your sales and profits. 5. Your business will gain a larger number of skilled people working on the same project. You will gain the knowledge of the other businesses employees. 6. You will be able to beat your competition by selling to a larger target audience. You will also increase the total number of existing customers you can sell your products and services to. 7. You can exchange endorsements with your alliance partners. You'll add more credibility to your business and gain your potential customers’ trust to buy. 8. You can expand your business more rapidly. You can develop new products and services faster with a larger work force. 9. You'll be able to solve your customer's problems faster with a larger base of customer service people. You'll also learn new ways to improve your customer service from your alliance partners. 10. You'll have a larger number of "strategic thinking" people. This will allow both businesses to come up with profitable business ideas quicker than before. Gary Brose has owned over a dozen small businesses in a 30 year entrepreneurial career and is now a business consultant and paid speaker. For more information, visit www.smallbizsherpa.com or email him at Gary@smallbizsherpa.com