If you haven’t yet discovered the value of strategic business alliances, now is a good time. Either capital or non-capital. There are so many options and types of strategic alliances that will help entrepreneurs bring their products to market and start their businesses. All you have to do is be creative, open your mind and get talking! So what are the benefits of strategic alliances? Well, just to name a few benefits of these partnerships between entrepreneurial companies: joint marketing, expanded customer base, access to products and enhancements, and not to mention having someone else to trust. There are two basic types of strategic alliances: equity and non-equity.

I am only focusing on equity strategic alliances in this article, but much more can be done about non-equity alliances as well. You can always take on both equity and non-equity strategic alliances, as most new and small businesses will. If you are automatically ruling out accepting partners or strategic alliances as an Entrepreneur; Think of it this way: would you rather own 20% of a $50 million company or 100% of a $1 million company? So here are some types of strategic alliances with actions that you may want to explore for your start-up: Strategic alliances of actions

Equity alliances and partnerships can come in many shapes and forms. Maybe developer capital is what you need if you’re a tech company. Or maybe it’s a marketing company creating a joint venture with an advertising company. Whatever the need, you will find it below. Strategic equity partnerships and alliances are also the perfect alternative for a company struggling to secure investment financing. Let’s look at it this way: For the 40% you give an investor to launch your new company, you could recruit 5 equity partners for less equity to do the same job. Like a developer, a designer, another business executive, a PR person, a production company, etc. Stock-Based Developers Many entrepreneurs are hiring stock developers to get the start-up up and running. It makes perfect sense with a lot of business now being delivered over the Internet.

• Most developers shouldn’t get more than 5-10% equity. But it depends on whether you see them as a vendor or a partner. Also, it depends on the scope of the development project.
• Limit the amount too. For example, I have a large development project that needs to be started before I can release my product (because I’m a software company). I have a stock developer, but I see him as a partner. You get 15% of the shares, but I capped it at 5 million so you can buy it if the software becomes a big player in the market.
• An equity developer may serve as CTO on the executive team. Investors often like the original developer to stay in charge of the technology project.

Stock Based Marketers Marketing is without a doubt a BIG part of any startup. And, most of the time… a challenge area for many entrepreneurs. You can certainly open yourself up to hiring an action-based marketing partner in the early stages as well. The same basic rules apply here, as they did with the capital developer.

• Most marketing partners should also not raise more than 5-10% equity. Again, it depends on the scope of marketing you think you’ll need.
• Determine what TYPE of marketing you need. If most of your marketing activities are related to the use of time and not money, then you can do a lot in the initial phases with marketing alone.
• Strategic alliances with marketers can often double as CMO on the executive team as well.

These are just a basic overview of the types of strategic alliances that are available to entrepreneurs. You can see more resources here on strategic alliances here.