Big Partnerships for Big Rewards

partnership apple micorsoft If you follow my blog at all, then you know I am something of a track geek. I generally keep up with whats going on in the world of professional track and field, as well as the college and even high school levels. One of the most popular track and field websites around is Flotrack. Flotrack combines information, videos, and blogs to provide fans and athletes a great resource. They started just a couple years ago and have created a very nice site.

Incidentally, Ryan Fenton, one of the guys behind the site, is a graduate of Chevrus High School. We always like to see Mainers succeeding in the world of business.

Two years ago, these guys had trouble getting press credentials. This year, they announced a partnership between them and USA Track and Field (USATF) to cover the USATF national championships this weekend via live, streaming internet coverage. This is a huge leap, and it indicates several things:

Someone from Flotrack had to work pretty hard to get a meeting and convince the USATF directors that this was a good idea.
USATF is no longer stuck in TV mode, and wants to harness the power of the internet to increase the fan base.
The Flotrack guys are thinking big.
Flotrack is leveraging its advantages to partner with a far bigger organization.
The partnership is a win-win. Flotrack increases legitimacy, and USATF provides the coverage that fans are looking for.

This has me thinking. If these guys can leverage what they have to partner with the biggest organization in their field, who can I partner with? There are certainly some big names in the world of bookkeeping and accounting. Who can you partner with?

The key, I think, is to be confident about what you are offering the world. If you can present what you have to the bigger organizations, and show them how they will benefit by aligning themselves with you. If what you have is legitimate, it would be crazy for the big company to ignore you!

Below is a video of the two guys behind the site giving a “day 1″ preview of the championships. After watching, you should say to yourself, “if these guys can do it, I definitely can!”