Dear Small Businesses: Stop Trying To Eat Alone

A man and a woman are getting married in Namibia.

They put out a call for wedding photographers on Facebook, looking for the best value for their money. One by one, each solo photographer tenders his services, showcasing his portfolio and prices. The couple smiles, nods their heads and promises to get back to each photographer with an answer, closer to the wedding.

Each of these individuals photographers has a low chance of landing the gig. You'll see why in a moment.

After 5 weeks of arduous searching, they finally come across a photographer who, like the others, came highly recommended by friends and colleagues. They ask for his rate card, his portfolio, and his availability. He provides each of these, but before the conversation heads toward its predictable end, he pipes up with an intriguing offer.

"By the way", he says, "I've got a friend who's insanely talented when it comes to interior decor. I work with her on all my weddings, and everyone is always blown away when they see her work."

The couple exchange glances. "Interesting. Can we see some of her past work?"

"Sure", replies the photographer, pulling out his phone and opening her Instagram page. "This is from a wedding we did last December. The couple were so impressed they referred her to the bride's brother, who got married last month. She's now the designated family wedding decorator!"

The couple keep scrolling down the page intently.

"And", the photographer says, landing the coup de grace while watching their facial expressions carefully, "if you book the both of us, you get a 15% discount on the total."

The bride-to-be glances up at the photographer. She silently turns to her fiancé and nods, ever so slightly. He looks at the photographer, pointing at the phone with the Instagram page still open. "Can you get in touch with her and get us a quote?"

Hooked.

"Sure", says the photographer. "Actually, I'll do you one better; I'll also give my cousin a call and see what we can do about sorting your catering out. She makes the best platters, and has a nice, varied menu you can build from. And not to promise anything, but a colleague of mine knows the owner of a nice lodge out of town. I'll call him tonight and see about getting you guys a discount on the venue."

"Thank you", the couple says, beaming a little. They walk out, pleased at the fact that 4 of the biggest items on their wedding agenda (on any wedding agenda, for that matter) have just been taken care of.

Guess who's just shot up the list of service providers who will be given priority over the next few months?

"If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." - African proverb

Any small business owner who has operated in Namibia for any length of time will have heard the Afrikaans phrase "man man vir homself" at some point, which loosely translates to "Every man for himself". The culture of individual effort is so entrenched, with each service provider fighting for a slice of the small pie, presumably at the expense of another. This is understandable; with only two odd million people, the market size in each industry is much smaller. Competition will inevitably be intense.

But there's an alternative.

What if, instead of fighting for a seat at the table, you collaborated in the kitchen to make a bigger pie?

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts; we've all heard this before. In the same vein, collaboration in business will bring you greater profits than when you try to go it alone.

By simply shifting your mentality from "me" to "we", you automatically increase the size of the pie, as well as the chances of you getting a sizable slice.

The winning photographer could have chosen to act in his own interests, like all the others bidding for the gig. But by including other service providers in his pitch, he positioned himself as a one-stop shop for the bride and groom. By attempting to solve all their pain points in one fell swoop, he displayed immense value and made them more likely to go with his team, saving them the hassle of having to hunt for other vendors to fill in the gap.

Collaboration is key. I can't stress this enough.

The idea of collaboration is one I hammered home endlessly during a recent series of workshops with small business owners. They wanted to get better at marketing themselves on social media, and we held sessions several times a week. A disparate group of designers, photographers, nail artists, singers, lawyers, party planners and educators, they quickly realized the power of collaboration once they saw just how far their reach extended with it.

A fashion designer teamed up with a photographer and a nail artist to craft a prom package. A singer, a massage therapist and an event planner came together for a Valentine's day show where all their services would be marketed prominently. A daycare owner and a children's party planner were suddenly exposed to an obvious collaboration opportunity, both of whom realized that throwing a photographer into the mix (for birthday parties) would make it easy to obtain business from existing parents.

Once they stopped trying to eat alone, they realized just how much more they could eat together.

Collaboration also made their social media marketing easier. The best way to think about Facebook (and Twitter, and Instagram, and the rest) is to visualize a vast room filled to the brim with people. And within that crowd, you, the service provider, is shouting for attention. You want people to know who you are, and what you're selling. The problem of course is that there are thousands of other vendors like you, also shouting, all of them demanding to be heard. In this sea of cacophony, consumers have learned to tune out the din of disparate vocalists.

But then something happens. You come across someone else singing the same song you're singing. You reach out to them, draft a new, combined score, and all of a sudden your voices are just a little bit louder as a duo.

People take notice.

You find a third person with a bass voice, and your chorus is richer for it. Add an alto, and the resulting melody has everyone turning their heads. A baritone joins the choir, and people are calling their friends to come and listen, and spreading the word to others.

You've just gone from a solo artist to a choir, and your synchronized voices have attracted a crowd. At this stage, anything you sing about will sell like hotcakes.

The photographer in our story will eat. The caterer will eat (no pun intended). The decorator will eat. The florist, who comes with the decorator, will eat as well. So will the printer, who was recommended by the florist to print the wedding invitations. He recommended his friend, the owner of a dance group, to come and perform at the wedding. One of the dancers has an uncle who drives a taxi; so she asks him if he can gather some of his friends to provide transport for the guests to and from the wedding. Everybody eats, and the newly-married couple is positively chuffed that their wedding planning was way less of a hassle than they envisioned.

Collaboration is key. Having a few more hands in the kitchen results in bigger, better, tastier pies.

This concept can be applied to any industry you can think of. Own a barbershop? Collaborate with a local supplier of beard oils to display her wares in-store. Your customers get a killer hair-cut, and will be delighted at the option to purchase care products for their beards. While you're at it, contact that designer to showcase some custom-made ties that they might be interested in. And when you're done, call up that old man who crafts leather shoes and have him set up a small rack in-store. For every shoe sold, you get a small percentage, while he gets a new platform to help move more products each month.

Better yet, let's say you sell pies (yes, I really like pies). Have you thought about reaching out to that niece of yours who bakes as a hobby to deliver some of her goods every morning? Buying a pie is nice, but if I have a choice between a pie and a muffin, I'll be a much happier customer. Tons of ice-cream vendors in town are looking for a place to settle down with a steady stream of foot traffic. Pies and muffins are good, but if I can also buy ice-cream at the same spot in this sweltering summer heat, you can bet all three of you will be making way more sales each month.

One of the best examples of symbiosis in Namibia takes the form of the bar/car wash combo. They long ago figured out that a customer getting his car cleaned automatically had two assets on him: free time, and money. By setting up car wash businesses next to bars, they make themselves more attractive to customers than if they tried to set up in isolation.

Another example: financial services. With your degree in Accounting, you can team up with your classmate who graduated in Finance. She offers personal financial planning, while you offer taxation and auditing services. By renting an office together, your monthly lease just went down, while your total revenue just shot up. And you can take it further by partnering up with someone who is skilled at production planning, where they'd be helping small businesses owners with procurement of vital supplies and services. If that works out, you can look at partnering with someone in the transportation sector. Businesses need stuff transported on a daily basis, and your team would now be well-positioned to serve that customer need.

All of a sudden, you're not just a "small business owner". You actually have a team around you, and you're thinking (and acting) like a corporation, while still delivering that intimate customer service you've now become well-known for.

Notice how none of these organically-built businesses needs to approach a bank for a loan. By simply collaborating in joint ventures, you're increasing the amount of capital you all have, and retaining full ownership of your respective businesses, while reducing costs.

The biggest companies in the world have been doing this for centuries. The tobacco farmer merges with the factory owner. The bank merges with the insurance company. The real estate contractor merges with the paint company, who both merge with the glassmaker for windows and fittings. Google merges with YouTube. Microsoft merges with LinkedIn. Facebook merges with Instagram, and then with the WhatsApp.

Even when launching new products and projects, they still find collaborators. Some of the richest men on the African continent, like Aliko Dangote and Strive Masiyiwa still approach investors to raise money to launch new subsidiaries. They could each do it by themselves; they have the money for it after all. But a rich man would still rather own 15% of a new venture with other investors, than 100% of it. He knows that by collaborating with other investors, he's spreading the reward but, most importantly, he's spreading the risk. Less risk equals a greater chance of success for all involved.

If you're planning on getting to their level, you would do well to emulate their methods. Let's stop trying to eat alone, and start trying to eat together.

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Mohammed Shehu is a brand strategist, serial entrepreneur and current doctoral candidate in the field of Informatics, focusing on how Namibian businesses can thrive in the world of digital and social media through brand storytelling and analytics. He has been instrumental in helping launch several local brands and has hosted workshops on brand management, business development and social media marketing.