When starting a business, you may consider taking on a partner to divide the business’s burdens. However, if you decide to take on a working partner, you have to figure out how to divide the business, and you need to figure out what qualities to look for in a partner.
It is better to foresee from the beginning how to resolve possible conflicts that may or may not be resolved than to have to resolve them when the relationship between the partners is confronted. In that sense, another important aspect is to define well from the beginning the responsibilities and areas of action of the partners.
If we take a look at the big companies, the business history is full of examples like Yahoo!, Google, Burger King, Ben & Jerry, Hewlett Packard, Harley Davidson, and Procter & Gamble in which the charisma and symbiosis of the founding team were determinants for the growth of companies.
In the same way that there are examples, taken to the big screen also, of companies where the friendship of a group of friends who founded a startup broke apart, as happened with Apple or Facebook. And it is not always easy to choose the right business or financial partner. So here are seven tips that should be considered when choosing a business partner.
Knowing what each one is worth or what they really can or do contribute
Napoleon is credited with the maxim that ” man is like a number: he only has value for his position. ” However, friends and enthusiasm there is when it comes to entrepreneurship, reality shows that each partner has a value and that no partner is worth.
It is important to know the value that each of the partners brings, what they will contribute and what they cannot ask for, their areas of expertise or contacts. Not all partners have to do the same or are worth the same. Changing people is complicated, and partners must accept each other as they are and be aware of their virtues and shortcomings. They must know each other, and they must interpret the behaviors around them depending on how each one works to avoid surprises.
Have confidence and delivery in what needs to be done
No matter how beautiful they paint it, undertaking it is not easy. When you embark on an associative project, you have to park fears, the “just in case,” the repairs raised before embarking, and once you have embarked, you cannot measure or cover your back or not surrender body and soul to draft. Without blind delivery, there is no trust, and without trust, there is no possibility of reaching a promising future.
If you do not trust your partners, you will be more aware of the ghosts than the business, and you will make wrong decisions. Or, as Churchill said, ” I spent more than half of my life worrying about things that were never going to happen.”
Have a spirit of sacrifice
As in sport, any business project also involves personal, family, and sometimes business sacrifices. If one of the partners is unwilling to sacrifice himself, it is not worthwhile to embark on something that will demand a lot, more than what one can normally give, and that will generate misgivings among the rest of the members. Therefore, in business projects, there is a lot of teamwork.
Know how to communicate and make yourself understood
It is not enough to send an email and then justify that “I already warned.” In a business venture, there must be communication between the partners. The freedom to express their position with total confidence, without the first change, is a rupture.
Without dialogue or confrontation of ideas, it is difficult for the union of the partners to make the force. For this, we must stop emails and promote face-to-face meetings and draw up the corresponding minutes so that there are no doubts about the decisions.
Search for persistence and creativity
The partner has to evolve with the business, undertake, adapt to the market, meet consumers’ new demands and needs, innovate, and be creative.
All this requires a constant, continuous, and persistent activity that requires the member to be a fighter and must provide new and different ideas to think and do like the most.
Take responsibility and demand commitment
If you are not committed to the project, if the partner does not focus on life placed on it, it is difficult for a project to move forward, and even more so if that commitment is not linked to responsibility.
One has to know what obligations one assumes and the burdens each day one is forced to endure. Without responsibility, there is no viability.
Knowing how to risk
Not everything is written in the Excel business plan or the commercial strategy of the PowerPoint. A partner has to make decisions, and it is not easy to do it or always leads to their success. But who does not make decisions, does not walk, does not walk, and in a business, you can never stand? Many decisions involve risks, and without risk, one is not a businessman, not any person is worth to risk, and not any risk is valid.
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