Looking for partners for your business but not sure where to start?
Use the HSF framework and begin the research for who you could potentially partner with.
There are many ways to explore partnerships for your business. However, it can be hard to work out where to start.
That’s why I created the HSF method.
It stands for Helps, Sells and Funds.
- Helps – your customers achieve the goals their aiming to achieve (either before they need your service or after)
- Sells – services or software to the same customers
- Funds – your customers in order for them to scale
And I believe that you should follow this order when approaching partnerships. Those businesses that help customers will be more open to collaboration to begin with. Once you’ve explored some content collaborations (think webinars, podcast interviews, guest posts etc) you can use this content and leverage it to start conversations with those that sell to your customers.
For those that fund your customers, it might take a little more time and you’ll really need to demonstrate the value you can bring. However, just one partnership with a VC or Accelerator can lead to dozens of introductions within their portfolios/cohorts.
