Do Not Think That You Are Going To Have To Divide Your Business.
It’s a real possibility, but don’t focus on it.
If you have read any other article on this topic, then the chance is that all of them have mentioned this aspect of business partnerships in one way or the other.
This is important – no one can argue with that.
But if you approach the birth of a new company from this perspective, there is a great risk that this thought will never leave your head. On the contrary – it will ignite your imagination and a sense of self-preservation. Instead of working and developing a project, you run the risk of constantly returning to the same old thoughts, like “Does my partner work hard enough?” “Do I do more work than them?” “I think I am worth more to this company than they are…”
Just think about it: in the first year of their existence, 66% of new companies close down and fall apart. 10% live up to their third year of existence, and all of them, first of all, care for their own profit.
Here’s a service that allows its users to find Russian single girls online that got it right. They’ve been leading the market of online dating for a long time, and they don’t seem on planning to slow down any time soon.
Choose A Partner With Similar Values.
This seems like a theoretical thing that doesn’t work in real life, but it is extremely important. You should imagine the same outcomes of events, have the same strategy, the same big goals, and be able to work together to achieve them. Because you cannot build a successful company just because of both you like money.
And the amount of money that you plan on getting is just as important.
It may be that both of you see everything in the same way, but your partner may want to eclipse Apple and is not going to slow down, plunging into perpetual growth and scaling of your company, while you don’t have the same ambitions and want to go about things in a more rational way.
Such a partnership, too, sooner or later, will fall apart. Most likely sooner because such a difference is too drastic for a healthy partnership.
It is important to determine for yourself why you need a partner in the first place, what are their strengths, how are they going to help your company, and how can they slow down the operation. You must understand the reason why you are not doing this project alone. If there are no difficulties in sight, it is better to do things alone. Save your nerves, time and effort.
If you feel that communication with customers is annoying, and you want to work behind the scenes – find a suitable partner that isn’t afraid of constant communication. If you are sure that you have no weaknesses in this or any other department, don’t bring anyone along.
Look at yourself first.
Statistically speaking, the most frequent reason why partnerships collapse is that one partner is unhappy with the behavior of the other one.
There are situations when one partner thinks that they are investing much more in work than the second one. That they are doing all of the production, while their partner just hangs out at meetings or vice versa. I am busy with negotiating with people; I go through all of this stress, while you are just doing nothing in the office!
Get these thoughts out of your head!
It is quite likely that your partner is also very busy, and they understand how much effort you put into a project. In any business and in any process in general, there is always a time when one link is stronger than others. This does not mean that this link is less important for in the long run.
Just remember that tomorrow, everything will change, and your colleague will be the ones under immense pressure. Do not fill your head with such thoughts, and if they do appear, do not be silent.
Communicate.
This is the simplest thing that can be done to peacefully resolve 99% of the conflicts that arise between partners. Sometimes you even wonder how stupid and weird people are.
If you don’t like something, talk about it. If you are dissatisfied with some decision – well, talk about it. For some reason, many people think that everyone around them wants to harm them or to scam them in one way or another, yet they are not the ones to ever do something like that.
It will be ideal if you agree on all sorts of important aspects of partnership with your partner in advance.
Find an adequate person who has the mental fortitude to understand that they need to open their mouth and not to conceal their resentment. It is especially common among businessmen, as they find it right to be silent, to not talk about the issues they may face. This is the reason why so many companies fall apart every single year.
You must agree that any criticism will be treated with respect. Even if you are called a lazy ass who has screwed up an entire project or some business opportunity. The point is not to endure insults – you must understand that you can honestly tell each other everything that you want.
If you will stay silent, then every little thing will remain inside of you, and it will grow into a source of constant headaches that won’t let you sleep at night.
If you do not want to say something to a partner, then ask yourself an honest question – what is wrong about it and why are you hiding it – don’t you trust your partner? Do you think that they won’t listen to you? This means that the problem is deeper than it seems, and you have to talk about it; otherwise, everything will fall apart.
Yes, it looks like a non-rational approach to business, but I keep in mind that 90% of potential business collapse for this very reason.
Divide Duties.
Use the strengths of each other.
One will be better at the negotiations, while the other one will excel in communication with your employees. One has more experience in IT projects, and the other has done more work with the media and public relations. Use this strategy and learn to trust – do not meddle and do not question the results of the work of your partner. Even if it seems that you would do 100 times better. You can criticize them, but to constantly mock them for their mistakes.
The important thing is that there should be a leader.
The leader is the one who is responsible for the company’s development strategy.
This may be the one who negotiates with clients or the one who controls the processes behind the curtains. It doesn’t really matter; there should be a leader.
It is at this point that the second partner will encounter the thought, “why are they the leader?”
This is normal and happens to everyone. If you ignore this thought and decide to keep silent – you will eventually burst out all of your frustrations and cause lots of damage to your project.
Therefore, one should be the leader, but both of you should be smart.
You should agree on that if one gets to be a leader in strategic decisions, this does not make the second partner to just a subordinate.
It is necessary to understand this rule; it is the key to success.
It should be maintained at all cost so that one of the partners gets annoyed with the way things are.
If there is no way to find a compromise, and you see two completely different strategies for the future of your company, then it’s not worth to move forward at all.