Leveraging partnerships

Another important use of partnerships is for overseas business. Being based out of India, offers us the cost advantage, so we can talk to overseas partners to get us business, and then outsource it to us. Just that the specific line of consulting we are in, involves senior management, so it's not always easy for an overseas partner to sell Indian consultants. But as the client base expands, and the expertise grows, this becomes much easier.

The first place to look out for partners is among your competition. It doesn't hurt to drop them an email saying they can outsource work to you should they fall short of resources. Next you could look at larger firms who do work in a number of areas, one of which is your niche. They're always ready to outsource work if you can deliver on one or two assignments. Thirdly, you could network in industry associations or meetings. I am terribly bad at doing this. But there was one time I attended a conference, and at tea managed to start talking to someone. Turns out he worked for one of the larger audit firms, and they were interested in our niche services for their clients. What started out with a casual conversation ended up giving us business worth millions of rupees. One of the employees who worked at this audit firm left them and went to work for one of the Big 4 in the Middle East. He then introduced us to the head of practice there, and we got further business from them.

Partnerships save you the trouble of the sales cycle, they save the headache of explaining to a billion-dollar organization how you as a 2-person consulting firm could provide them good service, it keeps the bread on the table, gives you the experience, and helps you build the contacts to get some initial traction going.