Tide Partnerships: Joining forces to help small businesses

Hear the name Tide in the world of fintech and your mind will probably immediately be drawn to a digital banking platform for small businesses provided via the mobile Tide app. But, did you know that Tide’s support for the self-employed extends far beyond our provision of business current accounts through our highly successful partnership programme?

Tide Partnerships has grown to be Tide’s most strategic marketing channel. Our dedicated partnerships team supports over 2000 individual partnerships across a wide variety of industry sectors. From delivery services to accountants, transport to the gig economy – the range of business types is both eclectic and diverse. But, what unites all our partners together with Tide is our shared ambition to support both current and future small businesses alike.

In this article, we will provide the lowdown on the success of the Tide Partner programme, as well as explain how it works. We will also showcase three of our current partners to highlight how our collaboration is bringing benefits to those who work for themselves.

Table of contents

• How does the Tide Partner programme work?
• Who can partner with Tide?
• Business benefits of becoming a Tide partner
• Spotlight on Tide Partner – Auderli
• Spotlight on Tide Partner – PeoplePerHour
• Spotlight on Tide Partner – Small Business Toolbox
• Wrapping up

How does the Tide Partner programme work?

Just as small businesses come in all shapes and sizes, we understand that one-size-fits-all isn’t always best when it comes to creating successful partnerships at Tide. This tailored approach explains why Tide partnerships have grown to become a proven customer acquisition and retention tool. 

As well as contributing over 20,000 new members to the Tide community every year, our referral partnerships are mutually beneficial, as they help our partners to both gain and retain new customers too, This is particularly the case for partners who manage medium to large size customer portfolios.

Chloe Wilson, Senior Partnerships Manager at Tide says:

“We have enjoyed considerable success in extending Tide’s ecosystem across multiple different partner business models. The simplicity of our programme and shared customer goals are what have made Tide’s Partnership programme so effective.”

With referral partnerships at its core, Tide partners consist of organisations that have marketing access to a network of sole traders, contractors, the self-employed or registered companies. Partner businesses come from a diverse collection of industry sectors, ranging from financial services to consultancy, construction to food delivery and pretty much everything in between.

There’s also no cost involved in becoming a Tide partner and it can even lead to generating an independent revenue stream for the partner referral business. Partners who collaborate with Tide and invest time and money in a sustainable marketing strategy tend to achieve stronger results.

Who can partner with Tide?

We’re often asked, “who can partner with Tide?” and our answer is always that it’s far easier to say, “who can’t partner with Tide!”. Our partner base includes businesses with customer bases, ranging from sole traders, to small businesses and those with workers in the gig economy. But, what cements our relationships with every one of our partners is a collective mission to support the self-employed. Whether this takes the form of helping couriers save time on their finance admin through the use of Tide Expense Cards, to those on construction getting support with staying cashflow positive thanks to Tide’s Cashflow Insights, we have all kinds of solutions for those who work for themselves.

Business benefits of becoming a Tide partner

We’ve already touched on some of the advantages that the Tide Partnership programme can bring. As well as the opportunity to partner with a market leader in the area of business current accounts for small businesses, Tide is also a proven customer acquisition and retention tool. Our referral partners enjoy competitive tailored incentives and commission structures, as well as access to our business banking platform and our market-leading company formation services. Partners can also unlock a host of member perks and every client they refer to Tide via their unique referral code will benefit from 1 year of free UK bank transfers.

Behind every successful partnership is a great team and Tide is no exception. The partnerships team are on hand every step of the way to provide ongoing scaling support to cement and grow the partnership. In addition, dedicated application support is also available from Tide’s onboarding support team.

Spotlight on Tide Partner – Auderli

Organisation is key for SMEs and Auderli is at the heart of helping small businesses maintain their financial well-being by keeping everything ‘orderly’. Offering a quick, simple and secure online auditing tool, they provide digitally encrypted document storage solutions allowing customers to consolidate documents securely into one place. This provides a smart solution to keep track of everything from mortgages and investments to financial management. The secure storage solution enables SMEs to keep all their financial files in one place, as well as providing peace of mind that data is safe. This is underlined by the fact that Auderli uses the same technology as that employed by global banks and governments to ensure data is kept secure. 

As well as being able to keep everything together in one safe place, Auderli also enables small businesses to view their assets and liabilities at a glance, which, in turn, can help with financial business. Collaboration is encouraged by the option of sharing portfolios with key stakeholders, such as a business partner, accountants, solicitors and financial advisors,

Rob Searle, Auderli’s Head of Sales and Partnerships states:

“We know that most people who own small businesses don’t get time to organise all their important documents, we’ve been there. That’s why we created Auderli – to help make life that little bit easier. What’s more, when everything is in Auderli you can share your portfolio with a professional advisor for better advice or your partner for transparency. We’re proud to be offering Auderli to Tide customers totally free and it’s dead easy to use. Have a go!“

Being an app-based solution with SMEs at its core is what makes Auderli a particularly good fit as one of Tide’s key partners and we are delighted that our partnership agreement extends to free access to Auderli for all Tide members.  To find out more and take advantage of this offer, check out our  Member Perks webpage.

Spotlight on Tide Partner – PeoplePerHour

Tide is all about saving small businesses time and money and People Per Hour also shares this mission. As the UK’s leading online freelancer marketplace, PeoplePerHour allows businesses to access a global network of freelancers who are available to hire by the hour or by the project. This provides an invaluable way for small businesses to source the expertise they need for a particular task or project, at a fraction of the cost of an agency.

Businesses have the option to post jobs for freelancers to apply to, contact freelance talent directly or purchase offers created by freelancers and can manage the whole project from start to finish through the platform. From graphic design to web developers to content writers, there is a freelancer for almost anything on PeoplePerHour. You can secure resources for a one-off project or on an ongoing basis without incurring the time and cost involved in hiring new staff. Like many of Tide’s smart features, it’s a fantastic resource to help those who work for themselves scale and grow their businesses.

Declan Campbell, PeoplePerHour’s Head of Marketing says:

“We’re delighted to partner with a brand like Tide that has such a similar mission in helping small business owners build their business from the ground up. We believe that our partnership with Tide offers a fantastic opportunity for UK businesses to take advantage of the incredible freelance talent through our marketplace.

Over the past 15 years, we’ve connected over 1 million businesses and freelancers around the world, and have paid out over £100m to freelancers. Find out what all the fuss is about!”

Spotlight on Tide Partner – Small Business Toolbox

Written by the self-employed for the self-employed, Small Business Toolbox prides itself on being a no-nonsense guide for sole traders, freelancers and contractors. It is this desire for clear and straightforward advice and tips that makes it such a good fit with Tide’s mission of supporting those who work for themselves. Aimed at start-ups, it provides an invaluable resource of advice to those just beginning their sole trader journey through informative blog and vlog posts. 

Covering topics as varied as how to register as a small business, through to important tax dates, as well as the value in opening a business bank account, it really is a go-to guide for everything you need when first starting out. Its ethos and values sit extremely well with Tide’s own Small Business Tips guide, which also provides a key source of information and advice for anyone who is self-employed. Small Business Toolbox has a shared passion with Tide for supporting start-ups, which makes it such a good fit as one of our partners.

Andy MacLellan, Founder of Small Business Toolbox says:

“Setting up in business can be hard and often lonely work. Our aim with Small Business Toolbox is to demystify some of the fundamental concepts of running a business. We partner with companies we trust and having used Tide for our own business banking over the years we felt they were a great fit for startups of all shapes and sizes.”

Wrapping up

In conclusion, we’ve given you a snapshot of three of our current partners, as well as explained how the Tide Partner programme works. As we continue to collaborate with new partners to further grow the Tide member community, we never lose sight of our core mission to support the self-employed. If you’ve read this article and think that your business fits the bill as a potential partner to Tide, then please register your interest and our team will be in touch.

Photo by Mike van Schoonderwalt, published on Pexels