Small Business Success by Association!

A Home Business Article Contributed by Elizabeth Fox-Wise

You Have Heard of Guilt by Association, but Have You Heard of Small Business Success by Association?

Simply put, small business success by association is the same concept your parents were trying to get through to you when you were a teenager and wanted to hang out with the "cool" or "wild" kids. Your parents probably warned you that you should choose your friends wisely and that you would be labeled as a "trouble maker" if you chose to hang out with trouble makers. We know this as guilt by association.

The opposite is also true. Studies have shown that teenagers who hang out with friends who are respectful, polite and responsible, will end up with those same positive attributes associated with them.

The same is true with your small business. You will be judged by the company you keep. In high school this meant the people you hung out with at the soda shop or local mall. For your small business this means the businesses that you do business with.

Nothing Can Boost Your Small Business Reputation Better Than the Right Associations with the Right Businesses.

In the ecommerce business world these associations are often known as affiliates. The definition given for an affiliate by the small business association (SBA) is as follows

" Business concerns, organizations, or individuals that control each other or that are controlled by a third party. Control may include shared management or ownership; common use of facilities, equipment, and employees; or family interest. The calculation of a firm's size includes the employees or receipts of all affiliates. Affiliation with another business concern is based on the power to control, whether exercised or not.

Such factors as common ownership, common management and identity of interest (often found in members of the same family), among others, are indicators of affiliation. Power to control exists when a party or parties have 50 percent or more ownership. It may also exist with considerably less than 50 percent ownership by contractual arrangement or when one or more parties own a large share compared to other parties. The affiliated business concerns need not be in the same line of business."

Use These Small Business Associations to Build Credibility and Consumer Confidence for Your Business.

Especially for small and start up ecommerce business, getting established and having credibility on the World Wide Web can be a slow and painstaking process. The easiest way to expedite this is establish some strong small business associations with other, already established, ecommerce businesses.

The easiest way to do this is to search for complementary (not competitive) online small businesses and approach the business owner to see if they would be interested in doing a banner exchange with your site. This means you place a banner on his site linking his customers to your complimentary business and in return, he gets to place his banner on your site. Since his business is already established with a good reputation among your target market, you will build quicker credibility among his customer base simply because of "credibility by association".