If you’re like most entrepreneurs and business owners, doing business alone poses one of your biggest challenges.

Do you ever feel overwhelmed with all you have to do? Do you work more hours than you would like to?  Are you stressed out?  Do you sometimes wish you had a different life?  These are all signs that it is time for you to leverage what you are doing by putting together a team to support you.

Strategic alliances provide invaluable support for business owners.  When allies work as a team, the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. You win. Your allies win, and your company wins.  Because when people work together toward a common goal, magic happens.

Attract and choose your allies carefully. In any relationship, it’s not who shows up, but to whom we say “yes” to.  Ignoring red flags ensures disappointment and distress down the road.

Creating strategic alliances is like anything else – it’s an inside job.  When you are clear with what you want to attract into your life, you will find it quickly.  Start by asking yourself these key questions:

v What do I love to do and what would I like to delegate?

v What are the values, qualities and skill sets of your ideal partner?

v What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?

v Where are 5 places I can find my ideal strategic alliance?

To find out more about asking the right questions check out www.asksucceed.com.

Once you’re clear on the answers to these questions, you’re ready to move on to forming your ideal strategic alliances by taking these 10 steps:

1) Look at the different areas of your business – sales, administration, accounting, operations, marketing and publicity.

2) Look in the areas where you need support. What do you enjoy doing? What would you rather hand off to others, if you felt you could trust them?

3) Prioritize areas where you need help and support on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 as “it would be great if …” to 10 as “I need a lifeline now!”

4) Determine your highest values.  What MUST you have in a partner?  Do you want someone who’s trustworthy, creative, intuitive, or system-oriented? What MUST you avoid in a partner – lateness, dishonesty, a lax sense of ethics?

5) Determine the outcome you want.  What result do you want from your alliance – more customers, higher profit margin, or more time off?

6) Create a big vision for your company. Small aspirations lack the charisma to attract desirable strategic allies.  Think about how your company can be a force for good in the world – and how much more powerful that force could be if you formed the right strategic alliances.

7) What are you willing to give to make your strategic alliance work? It’s good policy to give first, and it always comes back to you in some form.  Think about what you can do for your allies to lighten their load. Get clear on why it’s important to you to form a strategic alliance.

Think about where you need to go to find the type of person or company you want for a strategic ally.  Ask yourself, where do I go to find these people? Who do I know who knows people like this?

9) Make a list of those people and where you’re going to go. Then set up a  specific timeline of when and where your will meet your new alliances.

10) Take immediate actions.  Do what it takes to find the strategic alliances you want: check with friends, go to networking groups (like www.sharedvisionnetwork.com/join and ask business associations to find the type of person you’re looking for; talk to potential allies; check their references; pitch them on the idea of forming a strategic alliance. Be proactive and choose your allies. Don’t wait for someone to choose you.

Once you’ve found prospective allies, ask them the same questions you’ve asked yourself:

v What do I love to do and what would I like to delegate?

v What are the values, qualities and skill sets of your ideal partner?

v What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?

v Where are 5 places I can find my ideal strategic alliance?

Their answers will tell you all you need to know about whether you’re meant for each other. When you find the right alliance you’re on your way to increasing success and creating a super life.

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Ken Foster is a free-lance writer and the CEO of Shared Vision Network. To find out more go to www.sharedvisionnetwork.com/join or www.asksucceed.com or