Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay 

Good relationships in business can help you make decisions faster; strong relationships can help you overcome and avoid problems with more agility than your competitors; and time and energy invested into building strong relationships allow you to improve profit margins. It's important to have good relationships for a number of reasons:

It Can Make You More Reliable

When you rely on suppliers or vendors or partners in your business, then having a good relationship with them is vital as you need to be able to rely on them so your customers can rely on you. Their timely deliveries are crucial to how customers view your reliability. A quick turnaround can become the key to minimizing your inventory, which in turn, translates to less risk of inventory obsolescence and lower cash needs.

It Can Give You The Competitive Edge

Strong relationships can give you the one-up on your competition based on their pricing, quality, reliability, technological breakthroughs, and knowledge of industry trends. For example, if you have an IT consultant, you can benefit from their expert knowledge and work together to improve your processes.

Spectrum Wise, for example, will develop a personalized roadmap to help you make strategic decisions so you can get the most of your IT investment. They will streamline your processes to increase productivity and reduce expenses. You can find out more about them here: https://www.spectrumwise.com/worry-free-solutions/it-consulting/ 

Innovation

Suppliers can make major contributions to new product development or service. Remember, they live their product more than you do; they're working to be on the cutting edge of innovation. The good ones will understand your company, its industry and needs, and can help you tweak your new idea.

Finance

If you've proven to be a considerate, loyal and paying customer, you may be able to tap into your suppliers for additional financing once you hit growth mode-or if you run into a cash crunch. That financing may take the form of postponed debt, extended terms on new purchases, a loan, or an investment in your company.

Now that you know the benefits of good relationships, here's a few pointers on how to cultivate them:

Diversify your network

Push yourself out of your comfort zone and get out there and meet people beyond your immediate circle. Then seek out relevant people from unrelated organizations, such as media and government, and get to know them too. 

Spend quality time on key relationships.

Spend time with your most important customers, your most productive employees, and leaders who can make the most difference to your organization. These relationships will generate returns in the immediate future and in the long run. 

Renew and reshape your networks frequently.

It's important to look at the relationships you have, and you need to work on them to keep them. However, you also need to identify new relationships that are vital to the future of your business. Good relationships empower you to confidently and aggressively take risks, continually innovate, and bounce back from setbacks along the way. You can't run your business alone.