If you want to start a business, then you should consider finding partners to work with. Business partners can not only help you to fund your business venture but also keep things running smoothly. It’s very hard to run a business all by yourself. Having partners there to help you will give your business more of an opportunity to achieve success. In addition to being able to help you keep your business alive, partners are able to leverage their previous experience to improve your business’s overall performance.
Rather than presenting a step-by-step guide for finding partners, this article will present a step-by-step checklist of things that you need to tick off before you can select a partner to work with:
Complementary Skills
It’s always good to find a partner whose skills complement your own. If you haven’t ever owned a business before, then it’s very unlikely that you will have experience in things like customer support. It would benefit your business to find somebody that has. With that said, automated software makes customer support easier than ever before, so you don’t necessarily need a person to help you to understand customer relationships— you can use software to help you do that. Software can also be used for end-to-end sales and residual management. Sit down and work out your skills in business, then establish what skills you would need a partner to have. By having different skills from your partners, you can all specialize in different things.
Shared Values
While it’s good to have different skills, it’s essential that you have shared values. If you and your partner don’t agree with each other’s values then it will be very difficult to work together. If you don’t like to cut corners and like to complete everything properly for example, but your prospective partner likes to rush through things and half-finish them, then you won’t be able to work together. It’s essential that you get to know your partner before agreeing to work with them so that you can ascertain whether or not you have shared values.
Gives and Takes
You need to find a partner that puts in as much as they take out. It can be nearly impossible to work with somebody if they aren’t fully committed and don’t give and take. A lot of people today just want to take, sadly. These tend to be the people who let money rule their lives. If your business is going to work, then you both need to put in a lot of effort (and money). If one of you would rather take than give, then problems will arise. Again, this is why it’s important to get to know your partner before you agree to work with them.
Business Growth
You need to find somebody that wants your business to grow. You also need to find somebody that wants you to both grow as individuals. If you don’t grow along with your business then your business won’t ever be able to succeed, because you will be stuck in the past and won’t adapt to your business’s current stage. Business growth is paramount to success. A good way of growing is to attend courses, learn about business from other experts, and network with business professionals. You can do all of this online, but it is more beneficial to do these things physically in person.
Conflict Management
Find somebody whom it’s easy to resolve conflicts with. This is why it is a very good idea to find a partner that you get along with. If you don’t get along very well with your partner or if there is some tension between you, then it will be very difficult to resolve conflicts. You also need to find somebody that is good at resolving conflicts with other people that they don’t know that well. Conflicts and disputes are bound to arise among your employees. If you don’t have somebody that can act as a mediator, then you will find it hard to continue working with these people.
Similar Visions
Try to find somebody that has similar visions to you. If for example, you want to grow your business over a number of years and pay for your retirement with it, whereas your partner wants to run the business for a few years, buy a fast car, and move on, then you won’t be able to work together long-term. A good way to determine whether or not you have similar visions is to sit down and have a long discussion with your partner.
Financial Investment
If you are looking for a partner, then you should aim to find somebody that can invest their own money into your business start-up. This is so that you can be sure they are committed to your new joint venture. It’s very easy for somebody to join a newly formed business without investing a penny, and then reap the rewards. It’s more difficult for somebody to invest their money. By virtue of investing one’s own money in a start-up, it is a clear sign that they are the kind of person that you want to work with. It is indicative of their drive, commitment, and unwillingness to profit off of somebody else’s investment.
Complete Professionalism
Finally, you need to make sure that you find somebody who is a business professional. Even if they possess all of the qualities already outlined here, they aren’t worth working with if they can’t maintain a professional attitude. In business, a professional attitude is everything. Working with somebody that doesn’t have one can be extremely difficult, because they won’t deal with things the right way, and may let emotion cloud their judgment. In order to ascertain whether or not your prospective partner has a professional attitude, sit down with them and interview them. You may even want to do something to annoy them, just to see what kind of reaction it yields. It may also be worth running through a few hypothetical situations just to gauge how they react to certain situations.
Running a business isn’t easy. It’s a lot easier to find a partner to work with because you can both resolve problems and conflicts together, invest money, and improve your business’s performance if it begins to stagnate. Make sure to check off all of the things that have been put forward here, so that you can be confident you are working with the right person.
