Small business collaboration: Tools and best practices
Suppose you have a relationship with another company where you share a workspace, hold meetings, and discuss business matters. Does it mean you’re collaborating? Not always. Small business collaboration specifically means teaming up with a partner to reach common goals and achieve more together than you could on your own. It’ll often require working together on content to complete tasks more efficiently and effectively.
According to a Techaisle survey, collaboration is a priority for 58% of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). But real teamwork involves effective communication, shared expertise, and collaborative decision-making — far more than just occupying the same office or exchanging information.
If you’re looking for strategies on how to collaborate with other small businesses, you can foster a culture of cooperation and innovation by putting benefits, tools, and best practices to work.
Making the case for small business collaboration
Census data from the US Chamber of Commerce indicates that there are 33.2M small businesses in the United States, representing 99.9% of all companies in the country. While this number highlights the potential for small business owners to join forces, it also indicates the need for efficient collaboration so you stay ahead of competitors and create growth opportunities.
By embracing small business collaboration, you can:
- Access new expertise: A small business partnership, whether formal or informal, opens doors to different perspectives and fresh ideas. It allows you to overcome knowledge gaps and enhance your product or service offerings. By combining strengths, you can develop innovative solutions together.
- Share resources and costs: Imagine a tech startup collaborating with a marketing agency to launch a new product. Sharing expertise and skills would help these partners cut costs and accelerate their time to market. Collaborating strategically also allows you to access tools and resources that might be out of reach otherwise.
- Increase productivity: Small business collaboration solutions streamline team communication and workflows, eliminating misunderstandings and saving time. A Verizon study shows that 65% of SMBs implemented new systems for remote collaboration in 2022, while 62% reported increased teamwork among employees.
- Expand market reach: Collaboration with complementary businesses allows you to tap into new customer bases and expand your reach. Picture a construction company working with an architectural firm to develop new building designs. Both can attract potential clients through joint marketing campaigns, co-branding, or other initiatives. But for effective project collaboration, they need software that enables seamless information exchange.
Choosing the right collaboration software for small businesses
Whether your company has four or 100 employees, you need small business collaboration tools to facilitate real-time communication, efficient task management, and seamless information sharing. Yet, The State of Collaboration Report by Howspace shows that 58% of workers haven’t rolled out new technology to help with collaboration.
To get started, consider the most common examples of collaboration platforms for small businesses:
- Document management systems that help you organize your entire data lifecycle in one place
- Cloud data storage to securely back up and access your documents and assets
- File sharing system to send all the necessary resources to your collaborators
- Project management software to manage tasks, track progress, and meet deadlines
- Communication platforms for instant messaging, voice calls, and video conferencing
- CRM systems interact with customers and streamline sales processes
- Digital whiteboard platforms that facilitate brainstorming sessions and visual collaboration
When choosing collaboration software for small businesses, prioritize options that enhance team adoption and maximize return on investment. Let’s explore key factors to consider in these solutions:
Business size and needs | For small or growing teams, select tools and features that align with specific needs, such as enabling multiple users to co-edit a document simultaneously |
Real-time collaboration | Options that allow instant communication and facilitate decision-making accelerate project timelines and improve responsiveness |
User-friendly interface | Intuitive tools encourage team members and partners to use and minimize training requirements |
Customer support | Platforms with support channels, community forums, and training resources help you resolve technical issues easier and earlier |
Integration capabilities | Solutions that work with your existing tech stack streamline workflows and prevent collaborators from switching between apps |
Scalability | Systems that can accommodate growth in team size and workload ensure long-term use as your business expands |
Cost-effective pricing | Software that offers flexible pricing can align with your budget while meeting your collaboration requirements |
Security features | Features such as document encryption, password protection, and granular access controls safeguard data when you share it, helping you limit who can see your content |
Explore the top features and capabilities of cloud collaboration tools.
How to collaborate with other small businesses: Best practices
Once you have small business collaboration tools in place to make teamwork smoother, it’s time to build win-win partnerships. This move requires a shared vision and clearly defined roles.
Consider these four best practices when teaming up with other companies:
Understand who you should collaborate with
You’re unlikely to see an electrical company partnering with a perfume store. Their business models, target audiences, and service offerings are so different that it would be challenging to find mutual benefits. For the most successful small business collaboration, look for other small businesses that fill in your gaps with attributes such as:
- The same target audience, like multiple small retailers joining forces to co-host a seasonal shopping event
- Complementary services, like a partnership between a coffee shop and a local bakery to create exclusive gift baskets
- Industry similarities, like an engineering consultancy that develops SaaS solutions collaborating with a software testing firm to ensure product quality
Review the core values of a successful partnership
Small business collaboration can quickly become challenging and unproductive if parties aren’t committed to trust, accountability, open communication, adaptability, integrity, and mutual respect from the outset. Build a solid foundation for your partnerships by aligning goals, setting responsibilities, and sharing values that guide your collaboration efforts.
Create a collaborative virtual workspace
A collaborative virtual workspace is a platform that facilitates work with a distributed workforce, saving time on in-person meetings while getting tasks done in real time or asynchronously. It works as a centralized hub for communication, project management, and secure file sharing.
All parties can work together regardless of location. For example, you can upload all relevant documents for your project, store marketing materials, and integrate them with visual collaboration tools and video conferencing platforms.
Brainstorm small business collaboration ideas
A survey by Guidant Financial shows that marketing and advertising are among the top challenges for small businesses. By adding brainstorming sessions to your collaborative practices, you encourage creativity while sharing marketing and sales efforts.
The possibilities for collaboration are endless, but the goal is to develop solutions that differentiate your company from competitors and offer real advantages to your audiences. Get inspired by these small business collaboration examples and ideas to make the most of your partnerships or integrations with other services:
Cross-promotional offers | Offer promotions or special discounts to customers who purchase from both businesses |
Joint marketing campaigns | Partner with other companies to create a marketing campaign, combining resources and budgets to reach a larger audience |
Co-branding | Develop a new product or service that features both brands, leveraging each other’s strengths and reputations |
Online events | Host educational workshops or training programs together to share expertise, attract potential customers, and benefit clients |
Resource sharing | Share resources like office space or equipment to reduce costs and increase efficiency |
Supplier collaborations | Partner with suppliers to negotiate better terms or develop exclusive products |
Referral programs | Implement programs where clients receive incentives for referring new businesses |
Explore the benefits of using virtual brainstorming tools in your sessions.
Simplify partnerships with small business collaboration software
With Box, you simplify small business collaboration on a platform that centralizes the creation, management, storage, and sharing of your information. The Intelligent Content Cloud empowers your team with unlimited storage, e-signature, and collaboration powered by AI.
Box helps you power your small business with solutions like:
- Unlimited cloud storage capacity to organize and access your content securely anywhere, from any device
- Box Canvas, a virtual whiteboarding solution for brainstorming and planning
- Box Sign to streamline your workflows on any device with unlimited native e-signatures at no additional cost
- Box Hubs, where you manage all your essential documents, files, and folders for easy and secure teamwork powered by AI
- A file sharing system where you can send documents and assets without worrying about security or privacy issues
- Security and compliance features, including version control and end-to-end encryption to protect your documents from unauthorized access and modifications
- Over 1,500 integrations with tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Google Drive
Drive collaboration and growth in your partnerships with Box. Let’s connect.
While we maintain our steadfast commitment to offering products and services with best-in-class privacy, security, and compliance, the information provided in this blogpost is not intended to constitute legal advice. We strongly encourage prospective and current customers to perform their own due diligence when assessing compliance with applicable laws.