business partner

There is an old saying that two is always better than one and that is what applies to the businesses as well. As a solo entrepreneur, you cannot have all the resources that are required for making a business start up a hit in this competitive market. There are areas where you will flounder but that is quite natural for an entrepreneur starting his first venture.

Even if you are experienced, you need like-minded people and forces to make your business a success. It is not that you cannot do it all alone, yes you can but if you find a like-minded business entrepreneur whose needs coincides with yours, won’t it be great if these two forces combine? The chances are high that together you two can take the business to another level which you might not even though of.

But finding the right partner in business is as difficult as finding your life partner who will not leave you during your downtime. You need to find the partners with certain traits and qualities that define a genuine person and an entrepreneur.

Critical analysis of the partner you are counting upon

Trust is the base of any partnership

When you are looking for a partnership with your business, you need some reliable people and entities, isn’t it? And thus trust factor comes up on the top of the list. You need to be sure in your heart and mind that you trust this person with every single penny of yours and also about sharing ideas.

There are many cases where partners either stolen ideas from entrepreneurs and then started their own business with the same idea or stolen money by making changes in the bank and cash statements of the business. The person or the business entity you are choosing must be trustworthy and that is the first criterion.

Similar Vision

After trust, both the partners need to have the same vision about the business they are forming or if you are adding partners to your existing business then his vision about the business should be in the similar line as yours. There is nothing worse than having a partner with cross motive or purpose as that would completely derail the business venture.

Both the partners should have a similar vision for short term as well as long-term goals of the company. You need to open up discuss your basic thoughts about the business and if the thoughts are complementary to each other’s then you can progress.

Let try something together and know each other better

The third aspect which you need to analyze critically about your partner is whether he is suitable on a trial basis or not. If he manages to keep the pace up with yours during the trial phase, you can have him by your side for doing the business.

For the trail, you need to put him into real life projects of the business and see how he performs under pressure as your partner would also require taking charges and decision during pressure along with you. If he stands the hard times, he can be suitable in the long run as well.

Don’t finalize the partnership deed before getting into a trial phase otherwise, you might have to land up in a worse situation both monetarily and emotionally.

Leadership is important but not ego

There has to be one leader, it is not that the other person will be inactive or a dormant partner. Basically, what is observed in most of the successful partnerships is that one partner takes the decision with his analytical skills and reasoning or better decision-making abilities and the other person is efficient in getting the work done which the former decided. Both the roles are very crucial to every partnership business.

Though the decision maker is regarded as the leader the other partner who is executing the decision is equally important, because any decision without execution has no or little value. But there should not be any ego clash between them because of the world regarding the decision maker as a leader, both should be clear to each other and with their own thoughts.

Compatible Skills

Diversification and similarity must go hand in hand when you are doing a partnership business. As discussed above, the value system and thought process of yours and your partner must match but your skills should be diversified and different from each other.

If you are good in sales, find a partner who is good in finance and operations of the plans and ideas. If you are good at human resource and operation, find a partner who can handle the sales and marketing division. If you both are good in one single department, there would be lot more problems that you can even think of.

Finding the right people

The partnership is obviously between two or three partners for the small-scale business but there are some other crucial positions which needed to be filled with the consent of both the partners. For example, the people in the finance team are really crucial whether it is small-scale business or an MNC. You must choose the head of the departments like finance manager and sales manager very wisely because they will be working closely with you two people and thus they also need to have similar ideas and vision and skills in line with the business of yours.

Sharing the profit

Money matters whether you have become business partners from being friends or friends after being business partners. So, the profit sharing terms and conditions should be decided and agreed upon at the beginning of the partnership to avoid any kind of conflict after the deed or agreement is signed.

If you are raising capital from each of your pockets, then try to divide the profits in accordance with the capital provided by each of the partners and if you are taking a loan from outside, then you can divide profit either equally or on the basis of input from each of the partners in the business functioning.

Deed

Finally, you must have a deed for the partnership so that nothing is disputable between you two partners. Every clause and terms and conditions of the partnership should be there to have a clear idea about profit sharing, work allocation etc. This is not only necessary to have legal compliance but also for the better future of the company.

Where can you find the right partnership for your business?

In the present time, you can find partners from across the world and establish a great working relationship with them. But traditionally if you want to find, then you need to look without your close circles and find out the like-minded people who are into similar businesses or have ideas which correspond with yours.

It is evident that you are likely to find the best partner for your business from your own business industry. For example, a finance entrepreneur will understand finance project and business better than any technology business setup. The more you network with the right people, more is the chance to find a perfect partner for your business.

Moreover, nowadays, you can go online and search on the different social media platforms especially which are made for business and work communications like LinkedIn. Attend the business meets and the conference and you can find many people with similar interest as yours and there you can make many new connections for your business as well.

If you are thinking of making your business bigger then you should find partners and work alone is better but when you can work with similar kind of entrepreneurs, exchange ideas, you gain more knowledge and implementing those can make your business a better one.

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