All of at some point in our business career look at think about and even decide to have business partners. I have had several over the past 7 years and there two ways those relationships can go either great or sour. I have learned many things since I have engaged business partners. I want to share what I have learned.
When David and I decided to partner in the Maui companies we did so with full confidence in each other. We had a long track record together, we knew each others strengths and weaknesses, and we respected each other for which we are not what we bring. We also knew we would be ok with having at times very difficult conversations. Which since we have come together in the past 6 months have has several challenging conversations. Because we respect each other and know we want to work together we always come to a place where we can move ahead, sometimes I compromise sometimes he compromises. We committed that our friendship was way more important than any business we will ever do together. In the majority of my other business relationships I really did not know the levels of commitment nor core competencies.
Honestly in the other business relationships I wanted to see how these partnerships could speed up my desire to achieve the wealth I was striving for. I have to admit I had blinders on.
My corporate background reflected that teamwork makes the business more enjoyable and it usually got you to the end goal in a shorter time period. One thing I forgot to remember, in the corporate setting if you were not pulling your weight you were fired. In business partnerships this is much more difficult to sever your relationships.
In business relationships you typically have some sort of Buy Sell Agreements that outlines how you can dissolve you business relationship, what happens in the case of death, injury all the “life” things that can happen.
Performance is another matter all by itself. What if you partner with someone with a “presumed skill set” and when the rubber hits the road that the level of “skill” anticipated and what that person really brings does not match up? I have been in that situation and that’s when things get really rough.
If you are considering getting into a Business Partnership then you will want to check me out tomorrow when I will bring to you 7 things to consider when going into a business partnership. Don’t sign the business partnership today? Wait to see my post tomorrow.
{ 0 comments… add one now }