Transcripts

"Money File" -Strategic Alliances

SUSIE GHARIB: In the "Money File" tonight, using strategic alliances to enhance your business and the economy. Here's Jonathan Pond, author of "Safe Money in Tough Times."

JONATHAN POND, AUTHOR, "SAFE MONEY IN TOUGH TIMES": Whether your business has one employee or 100,000 or somewhere in between, forming strategic alliances can mean the difference between thriving during the great recession or merely surviving. Strategic alliances are nothing new, but when times are tough, they can be particularly beneficial. For smaller businesses, strategic alliances are a lower cost way to work together to reap the benefits of a team effort. A strategic alliance is essentially a partnership in which you combine efforts with others to generate more revenues. The goal is to minimize risk while maximizing leverage and profit. These alliances are more important in today's economy than they have been in decades. Businesses typically use strategic alliances to increase market penetration, to diversify product or service offerings, to create new businesses or to reduce costs. And while outsourcing is not as formal as a strategic alliance, purchasing a functional service for your business rather than building it yourself is a very sensible thing to do in this challenging environment. Now in robust economies, business owners and executives are often inclined to expand their revenues through internal efforts. But in difficult times, forming strategic alliances and outsourcing becomes a smart way to take advantage of expertise that would be very costly to build in house. The result is increased revenues, retention of jobs and efficiencies that help both the business itself and the overall economy. I'm Jonathan Pond.