Before I get too deep into this article, just let me say that intention of this article is NOT to make people angry or depressed. The real purpose for this article is to help reader determine if he/she is doing a few key things for their business. Let’s take a look at three main things that I feel any business owner needs to have in place if they are serious about making their business a success.

Setting Goals: Sound familiar? Of course it does. Have you done this? If you ask a lot of people, answer you get may vary from “I know what I want to accomplish” to “Do I really need to set goals? I’m here to say that if you have not set your goals for you business, then take a few moments and write them down. Yes, I said write them down.

Be sure to set your goals realistically. Goals should be reachable. If you set unrealistic goals, then don’t meet them you are setting yourself up for failure. You need to set short and long term goals. If you don’t meet your goals on schedule, do not feel defeated. Re-set your goal and strive harder to reach it.

Setting a Plan of Action: Okay, you have set your goals. Now what? How are you going to get there? This can be real tricky part for some. You need a plan of action that is going to keep moving you closer to your goals on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.

I run a small meeting, event and conference planning company based in New York City area. As an entrepeneur and small business owner with a limited advertising and marketing budget, developing business partnerships has been really helped me to get word out about services that I offer. For example, I have aligned myself with a DJ company as preferred planner for their clients and am actively receiving business and referrals from this source. Also, due to my partnership with a travel agency, I am now handling meetings, conferences and events for inbound corporate groups from abroad. Forming strategic alliances has been and will continue to be a significant part of my long term business plan and model for exponential growth.

I have practiced proverbial "art" of building non-competitive alliances with like minded companies, not just as a new entrepeneur, but also as a business building tool in all of my previous positions. While, on whole, this strategy has yielded very positive results and significant revenue, there have been some negative consequences. So, I would like to share with you a very basic list of "do's and dont's" for creating successful business partnerships.

-Do seek out companies where your services would be a natural addition to resources currently offered. For example, if you are a catering service specializing in healthy cuisine, you might want to partner with health club to offer special incentives to gym goers.

-Do choose organizations whose business ethic and overall image are at least generally compatible with yours. The last thing you want is to be associated with an organization who has questionable business practices. Although you may financially gain from such a partnership in short term, that type of "bad business karma" can only affect you negatively in long term.