OutlandEngine
Building strong relationships for your business is essential to make sure you have a chance for success and growing your business. No one succeeds totally alone, and you’ll need mentors and colleagues to help you along the way. Let’s hear from some business owners on how to build long lasting relationships as a business owner.
Be transparent
Is honesty always the best policy? Well, it is when it comes to business relationships that will endure. Be as transparent as possible with partners and collaborators, and be ready to share, answer questions and work together to reach positive results. Understanding exactly how you can best be of assistance is also a bonus!
Travis Killian, Owner and CEO Everlasting Comfort
Be Generous
Be generous. Whether that means with your time, with your network or with your expertise, generosity in all its forms is the bedrock of a satisfying relationship. Some of my most rewarding relationships are those where we earnestly and actively try to find ways to help each other out, staying up-to-date on their business goals, and checking in frequently to see where else there might be a way to support their efforts. And it’s generally always done without the expectation that the generosity will be returned, though appreciated when it is.
Chris Gadek, Head of Growth AdQuick
Support Your Partners
Support the people who support you as much as possible. No lasting relationship is based on a one-off interaction or business deal. Even if your partnership is short term, support the businesses who partner with you in whatever way you can. Even small gestures go a long way to keep a relationship active.
Raul Porto, Owner and President Porto’s Bakery
Build Respect
Building long-lasting relationships in business requires respect for all parties involved. Respect is the cornerstone of any relationship and creating an atmosphere that fosters it will help your business grow and succeed. Respect is often earned but it should be a given.
Tim Mitchum, Founder WinPro
Establish What You Bring to the Table
Be honest about what you need while being clear about what you can offer. Don’t come to any relationship expecting to get anything for free, you need to recognize what you can bring to the table in any negotiation. This will help build the expectation that you are reliable and willing to go out of your way to fortify the relationship.
Aidan Cole, CEO HIDE
Communication is Key
You may hear this a lot, but communication is key when it comes to so many aspects of business. But, when it comes to building long-lasting business relationships, it can also be the foundation that can lead to everything from occasional networking to mutual collaborations and successful partnerships. This is why you must see every connection as important, even if you can’t envision its place in your current environment. Stay in contact, and always look for ways to work together.
Dylan Fox, Founder & CEO Assembly AI
Express Gratitude
Don’t forget to express genuine appreciation to your business partners for what they do to help your company grow and thrive. Yes, business is business and you may not know your business partners as well as your friends or family, but this is not to say that you cannot be transparent in letting your business partners know that you’re truly grateful for them and that you’re supportive of them. This will keep you on their good side because they will feel more trusting of you and your company, which will be a powerful key component to maintaining your business relationships.
Joaquín Roca, Co-Founder and CEO Minerva
Be Choosy
Be choosy with who you choose to build close relationships with. It’s important to be trustworthy and transparent yourself, but you also have a responsibility to see when others are being dishonest. It takes practice, but once you learn to recognize when people are trying to help you or just gain something from you, you will end up with longer lasting relationships for your business.
Max Greenberg, Co-Founder and CEO Stoggles
Show Appreciation
Show your appreciation for your partners by offering them small gifts and cards as a reminder that your relationship is valuable to them. This may seem like a silly formality, but those actually go a long way to show someone’s value to you. Show small gestures of appreciation to fortify your strongest relationships.
Ryan Fink, CEO Streem
Keep Your Eye Out for Opportunities
There’s no perfect equation to build long-lasting business relationships, or everyone would be doing it. However, one important tip is to always be aware of options that could impact those relationships that are of importance to you. Did you happen to see a PR opportunity that would be a good fit, or perhaps a possible collaboration? Sharing information and staying in contact will serve to strengthen your relationships, which means they’ll last just as long as you continue to do so.
Ryan Rottman, Co-Founder and CEO OSDB
Build a Community
Build a circle of like-minded professionals and friends through networking events or community organizations and begin sharing experiences together. The best way to form close knit relationships that sustain the test of time is to actually experience life together. For example, I joined my local Young Presidents Organization after the success of my business to begin networking and developing relationships with others in my community. We all have a common goal of success, so we lift each other up and help each other out. Through this organization, I was able to meet people who care about the same things that I do. We grab coffee occasionally, attend local events together, and discuss the state of our businesses so that we can learn from each other.
Tirzah Shirah, CEO and Founder Blink Bar
Transparency
Transparency and honesty can help build long-lasting relationships in the business world. People respect honesty and if you make sure to give your business partners all the information they need, you’ll create and build trust. This is how great relationships grow.
Dr. Anthony Puopolo, Chief Medical Officer REX MD
The Best are Mutual
The best relationships are mutual and will help both parties grow and thrive as a result. If a partnership is costing more than it’s making, or only one party is benefitting, that’s a sign that the relationship is one sided and should be reconsidered.
William Schumacher, Founder and CEO Uprising Food
Don’t Take Help For Granted
While everyone has received help themselves, it’s important not to take it for granted. No one has to give you any advice or partner with you, it has to be both beneficial and a pleasant collaboration to help grow your business.
Eli Schurder, CEO and Co-Founder Soundsuite
