You think you have found the ideal partner. You want to know if this is the right partner before you invest too much time, money, and other resources in the alliance. You have assembled the partnering team. You are ready to try the initial activity. Review the steps and tools in previous articles for starting the initial activity. You can build quality into the process by using the Plan–Do–Check–Act cycle. This can be accomplished by listing the tasks that need to occur in the Initiate stage below each step of the cycle. On the following pages are examples of what to do in each step. You may want to use these examples as is or modify them to meet your particular objectives. Either way, the process will help you accomplish the task in less time and with greater efficiency and higher quality.
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Once the team is assembled, begin with the “Stages of Relationship Development” section. Ask each partner or team of partners from the same organization to fill out its column separately. Then, after each team has had this opportunity, discuss each partner’s response until you reach an agreement. This takes time. It may move slowly at first, but this is time well invested in the development of what may be a huge portion of your business. Please note: Although this example lists only two partners, if there are more than two you will want to make sure each group involved is provided with input and feedback. Continue until all the items have been resolved. You then have the foundation for developing your project plan.
In addition to grants offered by inventor clubs or the Small Business Development Centers, there may be other grants for which you would qualify. The main libraries in each community have large books of grants. While grants are commonly offered for college and vocational schooling, some are simply offered to qualified applicants and attending school is not a requirement. Most of these grants are offered by private foundations and some of the grants are quite obscure. For example, there may be a grant offered for a female of Italian descent who is between the ages of 18 and 45. If you meet those requirements, however, it is often quite easy to get that particular grant. Not all of the grants are so specific. Some of them are for categories of people. An example of this would be a grant for offspring of military personnel, offspring of civil service workers, offspring of graduates of a particular college, offspring of people who work for specific companies, people of a specific religious faith or people who have parents who belong to a service club or religious club. The list goes on and on. There are literally thousands of grants that go unclaimed each year. The only way to find out if there might be a grant for which you would qualify is to actually go to the library and pore over the grant books.