Expanding your business is a major step towards sustain the life of your business. However, there are many barriers towards expansion. You might find yourself lacking in terms of financial resources or the appropriate business skills. On these occasions, you may want to engage in a strategic alliance.

Yes, you heard it right. Don’t be afraid of this corporate jargon, for it can potentially save your business. In basic terms, strategic alliance is any agreement between 2 companies to share their resources for the purpose of generating more revenues.

Don’t think that because you have a small business doesn’t mean you can’t enter in strategic alliances. One possible type of alliance you can explore is called Cross-Marketing. This refers to a partnership with unrelated businesses serving the same target market to generate sales or increase awareness. For instance, a starting marketing consultant might want to partner with a local magazine targeting entrepreneurs. Under the cross-marketing agreement, the consultant must write marketing-related articles weekly for the magazine readers for free.

You might wonder about the benefits of this set up. For the magazine publisher, this means more high quality articles to entice readers to subscribe. The best part is it doesn’t need to pay the marketing consultant! On the side of the marketing consultant, the benefits to him are exposure to build his credibility and free advertisement. As the subscribers grow, the consultant can get more referrals. The latest live example of cross-marketing is the partnership between Apple and Starbucks to sell music through retail stores.

Aside from strategic alliances, Integrity Business Blog lists other ways to expand your business.