Collaborative business: the keys to the collaborative economy

Building an innovative, sustainable and lucrative company is not an easy job. But if we partner with other professionals, this can change! This is how the collaborative business model emerges, giving rise to organizations with divergent and convergent synergies that change the rules of the game.

 

But what is a collaborative business? It is one that offers services through collaborative platforms, creating an open market for the purchase of products or services normally offered by individuals. This method involves three agents: service providers, users and intermediaries. These participants connect through the platform and facilitate transactions between them.

From this idea we can extract the main characteristics of a collaborative business:

  • Exchanges of products or services.
  • Use of individuals’ resources.
  • Possession or temporary access of products or services, usually for a fee.
  • Better use and exploitation of little-used goods.
  • A digital platform that puts different parties in contact to link supply and demand.
  • The goods borrowed can be products, services, resources, knowledge, experience or time.
  • Distrust of traditional institutions or certain market sectors.
  • Environmental concern focused on the use of resources and the reduction of production.
  • Displacement of the company as a central figure to put people in their place.
  • Renewal of traditional offerings by providing new or complementary services.

What are the benefits of setting up a collaborative business?

 

The first of all is that the company profits from the creation of a platform that largely supports the labor of third parties, this business model encourages the possibilities of entrepreneurship.

 

The second benefit is that the person who practices as a service provider benefits from the emergence of new business models. You can also manage your workload and work schedule and even take a second job to complement the first.

 

The third benefit is that the consumer has direct communication with the service provider and access to a greater supply of goods at a more attractive price, as well as the option of using a good without owning it.

And finally, another benefit is the business ideas that have emerged based on this idea favor sustainability, the use of resources and the amortization of products by extending their useful life, so the collaborative economy is also based on the conservation of the environment.

 

Did you know that two great examples of collaborative business are Aribnb and BlaBlaCar?

 

We are the Business Center of Badalona, to give visibility and possibilities to your business. In Espai 114 together we are a team; we want to inspire you and accompany you.