It’s funny.  Most business people can see when other businesses have created new revenue streams or new companies by “piggybacking” or “spinning off” but can’t seem to see those opportunities for themselves.

An example of “piggybacking” is probably best illustrated by the stores that surround a major shopping mall.  The Container Store®, Men’s Wearhouse®, Marshalls®, Barnes and Noble® all benefit from close proximity to malls.  Frankly, so does Burger King®. Those companies don’t have to pay the premium price for mall space yet they benefit from the mall’s marketing (and often its parking spaces as well).

One of my favorite examples of piggybacking is a strip shopping center in Cherry Hill, New Jersey that included a bridal shop, a tuxedo rental store, a travel agency, a caterer, and a divorce attorney.

Piggybacking involves observing which noncompeting companies are attracting the customers you want to serve and figuring out how to be there when the customers go there. These days, “there” does not necessarily involve a bricks and mortar physical location.  Hey, there are HR consultants, accountants, and M&A attorneys buying advertising space all around my weekly on line broadcasts and blogs. DUH. They want increased access to executives of midsized companies.

It pays to ask yourself if your marketing is too focused on attracting customers from a cold start. Where does your message need to be so it reaches decision makers when they are already demonstrating an openness to investing time and money, learning and trying related things?

Aldonna R. Ambler, CMC, CSP has earned the right to be called THE GROWTH STRATEGIST™. She has won over 2 dozen national and statewide “entrepreneur of the year” awards for the resilient growth of her international businesses across 4 recessions.  Her midsized BtoB service, technology, and distribution clients get on…and then stay on…the published lists of the fastest growing privately held companies. All of her own service businesses (strategic planning, executive advisory, growth financing, talk show, speaking, search) help privately held midsized companies achieve accelerated growth with sustained profitability™.   Ambler is wrapping up her 7th year hosting a weekly peer-to-peer-to-peer on line talk show at www.Business.VoiceAmerica.com and www.growthstrategistshow.com that features interviews with CEOs/Presidents of midsized companies (typically between $20 and 200 Mil/yr) sharing success tips about the growth strategy-of-the-week. Family owned businesses are being emphasized in 2011. Ambler is in the process of launching her 8th enterprise. She can be reached toll free at 1-888-Aldonna or at Aldonna@AMBLER.com.