The Power of Strong Partnerships

Management
March 2021
Many business owners find themselves in a pickle this year: with an impending recession on everyone’s mind and the global stage being fraught with instability and change, is it smart to play it safe, or go all in?

At a time of uncertainty, many small business owners are turning to partnerships as a viable way to prep to weather a potential storm or to be ready for explosive growth.

Let’s consider an example. A lot of entrepreneurs are visionaries, with a knack for ideation, communication, and execution. Often though, they lack the tech-savvy, marketing expertise, or operational knowledge to actually get things off and running.
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This is where a partnership can exert its greatest powers. Pairing with someone who excels in an area where you may find yourself lacking creates the ideal scenario.

So what should you look for when seeking partnerships that will help your business boom?

  • Make sure you share the same values. Get back to the business plan basics and make sure your mission and values are aligned
  • Seek out complimentary skills and someone with a proven track record of working together already
  • Know your motivations and be able to answer the question of how this partnership will help you achieve that goal (and vice versa)
  ↵Once you have found someone compatible:
  • Work out clear terms with pristine definitions of roles and responsibilities
  • Decide what kind of partnership you want (i.e. limited, general, liability) and put everything (we really mean everything) in writing
  • Decide the kind of and amount of investment that you are each going to bring to the table (i.e. time, money, ideas) What are your individual contributions?

Once you get going, avoid:

  • Sharing capital instead of expenses
  • Partnership in lieu of hiring
  • 50/50 designations- there needs to be a boss
  • Lacking an exit strategy