I have been spending a lot of time thinking about the idea of collaborations instead of the traditional vendor relationship. It has become a reality at our business and I think everybody should be putting it to use.
In my entire career, if I wanted somebody to do a service for me, whether it was photography or videography I have to pay them.
It was a normal vendor relationship where they tell me how much it will cost. You have to sign a contract and pay them.
It’s a typical business relationship, right?
Collaboration: New Avenue for Entrepreneurs
The world is changing so fast. Everybody is an entrepreneur. The entrepreneurial community is booming and I think it is the most amazing time. Whether that’s part-time, full-time, side hustle, or building a business.
There are people out there that are doing their thing. They are building some sort of brand, business, and they are the most talented, hungry people.
The cool thing is you can find somebody who will do it as a collaboration with you instead of a typical vendor relationship where I am paying somebody x-hundreds of dollars.
There is this young kid here in San Diego that I love. He is a total hustler who’s building up a really cool brand with video as his primary medium. I sat down and talked with him, and said,
Look, man. Rather than paying vendors, I would much rather use you to do this. Give you the rights to use the footage. Share it all over the place. I’ll put that money that I would typically pay for a vendor into promotion and Facebook Ads, and get it out there with your name all over. So it’s building your brand so that you’re getting more paying clients coming to you.
And he loves the idea.
That is just one example and there are many more everywhere. Instead of paying cash for a particular service, I’m paying for promotion. I’m paying cash to get both of our brands out there, and it’s allowing me to move our business forward without the traditional vendor dynamics.
We’ve got a totally different relationship. He’s coming to my team meetings and wants to do planning with me and all related stuff. It is not because I’m paying him cash out of my pocket, it is because he is hustling, I am hustling, and we’re hustling in a way that’s helping each other.
That is collaboration instead of typical vendor relationships and right now with the way the world is so entrepreneurial, we’ve all got to be on it.
