An often-quoted African proverb states: “If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” It is advice you would be wise to heed.
Why?
Because it takes a team to build an Empire. Yes, you can be the emperor or leader, but you can’t run it all by yourself. Actually, you can, but your success will be greatly limited by you. Of course, sometimes you might need to clear the path ahead and then bring your team up to speed, but that should be the exception and not the rule. If you are looking for sustained success, you’ll need to collaborate on many levels, including the following.
Collaboration with Vendors
As you look to build your Empire, you’ll need to develop many strategic relationships and alliances. In real estate, it’s always helpful to have a good relationship with city officials, architects, general contractors, subcontractors, wholesalers, realtors, etc. Depending on the market/economy, you’ll need to heavily lean and leverage the right relationships to continue to grow and be successful.
When should you develop those collaborations or relationships? Before you need them. It’s a lot more difficult to leverage a brand-new relationship versus one that has been in place for years.
Collaboration with Employees/Your Team
Whether or not you have one employee or 100, this is very important to get right. Your business can only grow as far as your weakest link. You have to be willing to establish the correct culture, which includes ensuring your business purpose aligns with your employees’ personal purpose. If you can map out a path that allows them to grow through your business, you’ll achieve much more and much faster than you can imagine.
If you have a good hiring process, you shouldn’t be afraid to teach your employees everything they need to be successful. Will some of them eventually leave for better opportunities or because they outgrow you? Yes, but what’s even worse is when an undertrained and underperforming employee remains employed. Sure, you didn’t lose that employee, but they will hold back your success.
Collaboration with Experts in Your Industry
Why reinvent the wheel if you don’t have to? Chances are the problems and issues you’re struggling with aren’t unique to you. Lean on a mentor or someone who has been there before. It’s usually a lot more efficient and a lot less expensive to learn from the mistakes of others instead of learning from your own. Find a trusted mentor, coach, or consultant in your industry. You may need to pay for this access, but you should look at it as an investment and not a cost.
At Empire, we value the collaborations and the partnerships we’ve been able to create.
One of the best ways to eliminate your competition is to collaborate. As long as you have the abundance mindset—believing there’s more than enough for everyone—then there’s always some synergy or common ground you can find to help you reach the next level. If you truly set out to help make the world a better place, then there is always a way to find common ground. It may take some time and a lot of brainstorming—great collaborations and partnerships aren’t built overnight. Be sure to strategically identify which collaborations are worth your investment.
One of the biggest collaborations we’ve made is with Ninety.io, a project management software company. We stumbled across them through one of our “competitors,” and we have found their services to greatly complement our operating system. We probably never would have considered working with them knowing that a few of our “competitors” use them, but we were open and willing to have that conversation.
Not only can we help you run your business, but now we have the software solution to help keep track of it all. If you’d like a 30-day free trial, please use this link: https://hltx.grsm.io/empiresoftware
Jim Tannehill has been an entrepreneur for more than 10 years. He is Empire Certified, Trainual certified, and an expert in LucidCharts. As a business coach, Tannehill has consulted with more than 100 companies in many different industries and verticals.
As COO of Empire Operating Systems, Tannehill oversees the complete operating picture for the organization and is hands on with ensuring all clients are moving forward in the Five Phases of Business.
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