Mercer Island
Chamber of Commerce

Some business partnerships are easy to predict. A wedding planner works with a florist. A Realtor partners with a mortgage lender. A gym connects with a nutritionist. Those relationships make sense, but they’re also the relationships everyone else in the industry has already considered…even your competitors. Sometimes the most interesting opportunities come from businesses that appear to have very little in common. Their products (or services) may be different, but their customers share a need, an interest, or a problem. That overlap creates room for a partnership that gets people talking and gives both businesses access to a new audience. So what kind of partnerships are we talking about? Think of a chiropractor teaming up with an office supply company to host a workshop on creating an ergonomic home office. One brings expertise in posture and pain prevention. The other provides chairs, desks, keyboard trays, and other solutions. Together, they offer something neither could deliver as effectively alone. The best partnerships often begin with a shared customer pain point or need rather than a shared industry. Look Beyond the Obvious Referral Partner Traditional referral relationships can be valuable, but partnership opportunities can go much further than exchanging business cards or recommending one another. Two businesses might collaborate on: An educational event A pop-up experience A limited-edition product or package A social media series A customer appreciation event A community challenge A giveaway A seasonal campaign A shared guide or resource A charitable project The goal is to combine your strengths in a way that is useful, interesting, or memorable to the people you both want to reach. A dog trainer, for example, could partner with a hunting and outdoor retailer to offer an introductory session on preparing a dog to become a hunting companion. The trainer provides practical expertise while the retailer introduces participants to equipment and outdoor safety. Both businesses meet potential customers in a setting where buying something isn’t the only point of the interaction. An event like this can also create community. Attendees will meet other people with same interests. That’s a sweet spot. The partnership delivers a genuine experience, with business opportunities built naturally into it. Everyone gets something from it. Start With the Customer’s Life If you’re struggling to identify potential partners, stop looking at your business category for a moment. Look at everything happening in your customer’s life before, during, and after they buy from you. Ask yourself: What else is this customer trying to accomplish? What problem led them to need my product or service? What do they typically purchase before or after working with me? What interests, milestones, or concerns do many of my customers share? Where else do these customers spend their time? What hobbies or interests might my customers have? A professional organizer’s clients may also be preparing to move, renovating a home, helping an aging parent downsize, or trying to make room for a home-based business. That organizer could partner with a senior moving specialist, an antique dealer, a document-shredding company, or a local photographer who digitizes family photos. Each pairing addresses a larger customer need than either business handles alone. Create a Combination People Don’t Expect An unexpected pairing gives you an immediate marketing advantage. People are more likely to notice an event or promotion when they haven’t seen the same idea repeatedly. Consider these possibilities: A wine bar hosts a wig try-on evening with a local wig designer or boutique, creating a relaxed way for customers to experiment with a new look. A bookstore and travel agency host a “Read It, Then Visit It” series featuring books set in upcoming travel destinations. A florist and a pet photographer create mini photo sessions using pet-safe floral backdrops. A financial planner and an interior designer offer a seminar for couples on budgeting for a home renovation without turning the kitchen remodel into a financial horror story. A bakery and a real estate agent create neighborhood welcome boxes for new homeowners. A jeweler and a tattoo artist host a conversation about personal symbolism and the stories behind the art people wear. A garden center and a restaurant offer a class on growing herbs in small spaces, followed by a demonstration showing how to use them. A cybersecurity company and a coffee shop host a morning session on protecting a business while working remotely. A tailor and a career coach offer interview preparation that covers both what to say and what to wear. A hardware store and a local artist host a workshop on turning ordinary home-improvement materials into decorative pieces. A toy store and a family therapist create a parent workshop on using play to help children communicate. A mobile car detailer and a professional organizer offer a “reset your ride” package for busy parents or sales professionals. These ideas work because there’s a connecting thread. The businesses aren’t being paired for novelty alone. Together, they solve a problem, support a goal, or create an experience. Make Sure Both Partners Have Something to Gain A creative idea still needs a solid business case. This isn’t you and your bestie randomly showcasing your businesses. Before approaching a potential partner, think through what each business brings (as far as knowledge, clients, and interests) and what each one receives. A useful partnership should offer some combination of: Exposure to a relevant new audience Increased foot traffic New leads or appointments Additional sales Stronger customer relationships Fresh marketing content Positive community visibility A lower cost than producing the campaign independently Audience size doesn’t need to be identical, but the exchange should feel equitable. One partner might provide the venue while the other supplies the expertise. One may handle registration while the other pays for refreshments. Decide who will do what before the invites start flying. It’s also smart to agree on how results will be measured. Depending on the partnership, that might include registrations, attendance, email sign-ups, sales, social media reach, coupon redemptions, or follow-up appointments. Speaking of sign-ups, both businesses should have access to the RSVPs and their emails. Begin With a Small Experiment You don’t need to launch an elaborate soiree the first time you work together. Start with something easy to organize and inexpensive to test. You might start by creating one short video together, host a one-hour workshop, develop a shared download, or cross-promote a themed offer for a week. A small project gives both businesses a chance to see how well their audiences respond and how effectively they work together. Questions you get asked by doing this can also be a learning experience or yield a better understanding of what your customers want. If your “test” succeeds, you can build on it. A one-time workshop might become a quarterly series. A holiday bundle could become a year-round package. A simple social media collaboration could lead to a larger community event. Let the Chamber Help Make the Connection Finding an innovative partnership can be difficult when you’re working from the same list of contacts you’ve had for years. That’s where your chamber can help. The chamber has a wider view of the local business community. They may know about a new company, an overlooked member, or a business owner whose expertise complements yours in a way you haven’t considered. They can also help you think beyond the obvious categories and identify businesses that serve similar customers from a completely different angle. If you know whom you’d like to meet, let the chamber know so they can introduce you. And if you know the kind of audience you want to reach but have no idea which business might help you reach it, talk to them about that too. Your next best collaborator may already be in the community, waiting for someone to connect the dots.

Every business has that one employee—the person who knows how to fix the ancient printer, knows which vendor will answer after 5 p.m. and how to get them to do so, knows where the old customer files live, and understands the nuances and preferences of your most loyal customers, including what not to do when they’re upset. That employee can work through any role because they’ve been around long enough to know where all the bodies are buried. Figuratively, we hope. They’re invaluable and you lean on them without thinking. They’re an integral part of your business and you can’t imagine working without them, but they’re also one of your biggest business risks. Yes, they’re a great employee, and would never knowingly leave you in a lurch, but the problem occurs when critical knowledge lives entirely in one person’s head. If that employee gets another job, retires, becomes ill or is in an accident, takes an extended leave, or simply decides it’s time for a change, how much of your business walks out the door with them? For many small businesses, the answer is uncomfortable. The “Only Sam Knows How” Problem Large companies usually have redundancy, documented processes, training programs, and entire departments built around continuity. Small businesses often have “Sam.” Sam knows how everything works. That arrangement feels wonderfully efficient right up until Sam is unavailable. Somehow even ChatGPT doesn’t know what Sam does. And the danger isn’t limited to highly technical jobs either. Institutional knowledge can include vendor contacts, software passwords, customer preferences, renewal dates, purchasing procedures, pricing history, equipment quirks, regulatory requirements, and dozens of small decisions employees make automatically because they have made them hundreds of times before. That knowledge has business value. If it disappears, the company may lose productivity, customers, revenue, and time while everyone else tries to reconstruct how things were done. Even if you don’t think Sam would leave without giving notice and training their replacement, there are times things happen unexpectedly, and that kind of institutional knowledge isn’t even something Sam knows to impart. An employee thinks about how to train their replacement in job responsibilities. They cannot train on that special relationship they have with your top vendor and it probably won’t occur to them to tell their replacement about the finicky printer and how to manage it. Good employees should be valued precisely because of the experience and judgment they bring. But you want to ensure your business is resilient in those unexpected cases. Start With the Jobs You Cannot Afford to Forget Ask yourself: If someone on our team couldn’t come to work, what would we struggle to do? Don’t limit the exercise to senior employees/leadership. Your receptionist may know more about customer behavior than anyone else in the company. Your warehouse manager may have developed an informal inventory system nobody has ever documented. Your bookkeeper may know which customers require special invoicing procedures. Identify the processes where knowledge is concentrated in one person. Then start documenting them. Don’t create a 200-page operations manual that nobody will read. In most situations, a checklist, shared document, short screen recording, or simple step-by-step guide is enough. Document things such as: recurring tasks and deadlines passwords and system access procedures important vendor and customer contacts billing and purchasing procedures software instructions equipment maintenance regulatory or compliance responsibilities common problems and how they are handled You want to create a business someone else can successfully step into. Cross-Train Before You Need To Documentation helps, but people learn by doing. Whenever possible, have at least one additional employee understand the basics of critical responsibilities.You don’t want your company to grind to a halt because one person is unavailable or gone. Cross-training can also reveal inefficiencies. When someone explains a process to another employee, you may discover that six steps exist simply because nobody has questioned them in eight years. Build Your Bench Strength Before You Need It There’s another side to succession planning: knowing where to find people when you need them. Your local chamber of commerce can become an important resource for this. Chambers connect businesses with other employers, workforce organizations, colleges, training providers, staffing professionals, and community leaders. They may offer job boards, workforce programs, referrals, leadership development opportunities, networking events, or introductions that help employers expand their talent pipeline. Those relationships can make finding the right person significantly easier. Even if you don’t need someone now, get to know your community. See who’s working in similar areas. Know who could become your next star. Stay connected. But finding a strong candidate is only half the equation. Even the perfect new employee will struggle if the person they’re replacing left behind no instructions, passwords, processes, contacts, or context. Recruitment and continuity have to work together. Your Business Should Know What Your Employees Know Great employees are one of a small business’s greatest assets. The smartest companies don’t try to reduce their importance. They capture and share enough of their knowledge so the organization can continue operating when change inevitably comes. Think of it as protecting the investment you’ve made in your people. Your chamber and local business community can help you build relationships, develop talent, and connect with potential employees when the time comes. Your job is to make sure the next person doesn’t have to solve a mystery on their first day. Because sooner or later, every business undergoes transition. The best time to prepare for it is while Sam is still in the building.