I've mostly been a solo flyer during the course of my business life. Bought a drycleaning company when I was very young, started a songwriting enterprise and eventually a music publishing company, ultimately selling the first business to establish a production company.

I've come to the conclusion however, that most of my best work and most successful projects came as a result of working with other talented people. Collaboration, or "Partnering" if you will.

A couple of examples: one of my most successful songs (charted worldwide) was written with a well-known songwriter from New York. The biggest grand-opening I ever had for a drycleaning outlet was done in tandem with my late father. In both cases, the outcomes would have been drastically different had I not asked these "partners" to come on board with me. The song would never have been written and I'm quite sure that although the new store would have opened at the same time, the clothes would not have been piled up to the ceiling had my father's expertise been ignored. "Partnering" was totally responsible for those positive outcomes.

Most successful entrepreneurs subscribe to the "two heads are better than one theory". And it works with not only major projects, but in routine everyday tasks. The jobs that we would all love to think we can do better than anybody and because of that very fact, the same thinking that is most often difference between success and failure. Let me explain the concept in terms of Internet marketing.

Everyday we stumble on some marketer promoting a great product with weak materials - lame email subjects, even lamer letters (especially the hypertoointensive genre), unappealing websites and run-of-the-mill classified ads. Most often, I don't look beyond an ineffective heading. Now all that guy needs is to "partner", be it a more marketing in-tune friend and a for-hire copywriter to experience what he is probably lacking most - sales!

If you've got even basic advertising "chops", partnering can be as simple as bouncing your marketing copy off your loved ones (NOT the ones who love you TOO much cause they ALWAYS love what you do) and the sharpest consumer types you know. If they wouldn't look past your opening "hook", show them a bunch of other ads and have them tell you which ones grabbed them. Now compare those ads with those you know were written by pro marketers and you will notice similarities in approach and style. The exact qualities your ads are missing.

Point here is this: some of us, but not many, are capable of writing magnetic marketing material (but still it's a good idea to partner). It's a true craft and one you may never master. Deal with it! Either practice, practice, practice and perfect, or, stop wasting your time and resources and pay the piper. Go to someone who can do it for you - a professional copywriter, webdesigner or what have you.

One of my mentors, Lee Iacocca, did not dream, design, engineer, assemble, market, sell, repair and meet the junkman at the salvage yard when his Mustang ended it's life on the road. Lee did what Lee did best and dreamt of the car, got others to share in his vision, devised a plan and delegated the responsibilities to deliver his trend-setting automobile. He "partnered" with specialists in areas he didn't specialize in, thousands of them to achieve all that he is credited for. (Now I ask, why couldn't HE be President?)

You can have some of the hottest marketing materials on the Internet (or anywhere else for that matter) and increase your sales dramatically if you choose to utilize the concept of partnering. No one person can wear all the hats all the time.

Let go of what you don't do best so you can do what you do do best.

How's that for a closing line, partner?

----------
Visit Rick's InterNiche.net website and check out the most powerful Internet promotional tools at: http://www.interniche.net