The dangers of partnering with the wrong company

Most people dream of starting their business at some point in their life. Who doesn’t crave the freedom to be in control of their own destiny and financial future? There are so many benefits of becoming your own boss that it’s easy to see why so many people have a zest for business.

However, being in business is not all a bed of roses, as there are invariably challenges that you need to overcome. Review the story behind most successful individuals or companies and you will quickly realise how adversity was overcome. The classic rags to riches theme or the underdog triumphing against all the odds to become successful is prevalent.

While the business world is littered with success stories, there are also countless individuals or companies that haven’t quite succeeded because of a variety of reasons. Some were due to external factors that couldn’t be countered while others were the result of bad strategic decisions that only came into focus when it was too late.

In our blog this week, we wanted to dive deeper into some of the dangers of partnering with the wrong company and how that can ultimately affect the long term health of your business.

What is the wrong company?
Now, this is a hard question as hindsight is a wonderful thing. It is relatively easy to be wise after the event. The trick is to identify the wrong company for your needs before you commit to a strategic partnership.

The wrong company for you is based on a number of factors that are unique to your individual circumstances. When looking at the digital world, in our opinion, the wrong company for you is one that has not got the support structures in place to help you scale your business.

When you are starting any business, the long term aim is to always scale up and grow as a company. Growth could be in terms of employees, premises, revenue, products or services etc. But in the end, it’s about building something that is sustainable and strong.

Where a lot of people make a mistake in our industry is not carrying out their due diligence and selecting a company that is not a good fit for your long term aspirations. For example, when you are considering companies to work with to build a Digital Agency, it is imperative that you select a business that has invested in their own technology.

This is because it will give you the opportunity to feedback changes and suggestions that are requested by your clients. If you partner with a company that is white labeling their technology from a third party, you will be limited in what you can actually deliver to your clients.

What are some of the dangers of partnering with the wrong company?
Having identified some of the characteristics of the wrong company for you, it is important to appreciate some of the associated dangers that this can present for your business, in particular your Digital Agency.

The first danger centres around support and the lack thereof. The most successful companies are generally built around an outstanding commitment to customer care. For example, companies like Apple and Amazon have built their reputation on making sure the customer journey, from initial purchase to after care is spot on.

However, if you partner with the wrong company you will most likely receive customer support that is below your or your customers expectation. This should be an area of great concern as the true reflection of any company for most people is how they respond when there is an issue. By partnering with the wrong company that doesn’t put the customer or client experience at the heart of their business, you will never be able to achieve long term growth.

Another danger with partnering with the wrong company is the lack of agility moving forward. The business world and in particular the technology sector, moves at a very fast pace. By aligning yourself with a company that is not investing in their digital architecture, be that systems, platforms or cloud technology capabilities, you are setting yourself up for failure.

This is the exact reason why we made the conscious decision a few years ago to develop our own technology platforms so we could innovate over time. It is why we have been able to recently sign a partnership agreement with DigitalOcean for our cloud infrastructure requirements.

The final danger of partnering with the wrong company that we would like to highlight in this week's blog focuses on the opportunity cost of partnering with another company. While partnering with another company for your technology or infrastructure might sound like a marriage made in heaven, we believe you should always take a step back and ask yourself, “do I really need to work with another company?”

There are obvious advantages of partnering with a company, especially in the technology sector, as you can accelerate your route to market and focus on revenue generating activities rather than building out your own infrastructure.

However, if you are considering a more traditional type of business, that is not digitally based, you might be better off investing your time and resources into striking it alone.

Summary
The dangers of partnering with the wrong company can be compounded over time and don’t usually manifest until it is too late. If you align with the wrong company, you will not have the flexibility to scale your business in line with your own aspirations and crucially you’ll be unable to respond to feedback from your clients.

In our opinion, it is important to take your time and carry out your due diligence before you invest in partnering with a company. That is why when every potential partner enquires with us, we take them through a discovery phase to assess whether we are collectively a good fit for each other.

To find out more about how we can help you with your research and evaluation, please contact a member of our team today.

Until next time, take care.