How to Find Businesses that Align With Yours

When you’re looking to outsource work, searching for a trustworthy business whose values agree with yours can feel sort of like online dating. One of my younger friends, we’ll call her Cara, was talked into trying out Hinge recently by her therapist in an effort to encourage her to put herself out there more. I suppose this was essentially the business equivalent of looking for help in marketing and brand awareness. Cara’s goal was to practice starting conversations with new people and being open to a new relationship, but not to go on a bunch of dates. Meaning she had to find matches that looked fun to talk to but not serious enough to ask her to meet in person after one or two conversations. This led to several interactions that went along the lines of:

Random Guy: “Hi, I liked your profile and would like to get to know you better. [Insert basic question]”

Cara: “Hi! [Answers basic question]”

Random Guy: “Haha no way! You seem like fun, do you want to meet up for a drink?”

Cara: “No I don’t really feel comfortable meeting you in person yet…”

Random Guy: “Oh? Well, let’s keep talking and we can go out once we know each other a little more.”

At which point Cara would usually get an ick and ghost. There was once when a guy called her “cutie” and that alone was enough for her to move on. Little things like how quickly they wanted her to make a commitment or when their wording felt slightly off would set off the spidey senses and send her running. I’m pretty sure she deleted the app after three days of this.

Why Finding Like-Minded Business Partners is Important

As silly as some of her reasons for turning someone down seemed, Cara knew the signs to tell early on if she was incompatible with someone and avoid wasting her time. In the same way, vetting the personality of other businesses is important to avoid wasting your time and money.

Finding other businesses that align with your mission can be crucial when expanding your network, creating a list of trusted referrals for your clients, and when deciding who to collaborate with. Hiring someone to help you with a project means you’ll be investing a ton of time, money, and energy into working with them – it’s important to make sure the core values and philosophies of you both fit! Otherwise you’re bound for miscommunication, tension, and confusion, and there’s a decent chance you won’t be completely satisfied with the project by the end of it all. Going through a vibe check process to ensure the people you would be working with will be compatible with your team and lead your business in the direction you envision helps things to run much smoother further down the line.

How to Find Another Business’s Core Values

The easiest place to start your vibe-checking quest is your potential partner’s website. Most businesses will list their values, mission, and other information on their about page. For example, on Upwell Strategies’ about page you can find out:

• I care about my family and having a healthy work-life balance
• I believe that everyone matters
• I like to encourage and empower my clients
• Upwell’s core values are innovation, quality, collaboration, and sustainability
• One of Upwell’s main goals is to bring clarity and calm into the life of a business owner

A business’s about page is basically the same thing as an online dating profile. It gives you a lot of important information that can let you know if there’s good potential for a future together, but ultimately it was written with a target audience and sales in mind. If no red flags pop out at you and it sounds like it could be a good match, great! You’re probably on the right track to finding someone who will be a great collaborator. But you want to make sure you aren’t being catfished.

This is when it’s a good time to do a deep dive – check their social media, read a couple of blogs, if they have any, and look for client testimonials. Social media and blogs are still designed for marketing, but they give a view of what the business has said and done over time. You can check for consistency, positive language, and get a clearer idea of the business’s long term goals.

The real ace up your sleeve is reading client testimonials. Think if you had gotten the chance to interview that one guy’s exes before you started dating him – it probably would’ve saved you some trouble. Finding reviews of work they’ve done in the past, can give you the best idea of what it’s really like to be in the trenches together. Some businesses will share client reviews on their website, others will have a Google business page where you can read reviews, and sometimes your best shot is to check their Instagram or Facebook comments sections. If there are no client reviews or only bad client reviews, take that as a red flag and look elsewhere.

Finally, talk to them! You’ll have to reach out for a quote anyways, so the process of asking questions and going on a sales call is a great chance to feel things out in person.

Even after taking the above steps, committing to investing a large amount of your revenue to a business you haven’t worked with before can be nerve-wracking, which is why Upwell Strategies offers an affordable audit & strategy project that lets you get to work with us for a reasonable cost and see exactly what we can offer before deciding to commit to a larger project. Interested in learning more? You can read up on our audit & all it entails here.