Articles

Choosing the Right Business Partner

by Emma L. Business consultant

Teaming up with another person in order to start a business or keep it afloat isn’t something that should be done lightly. The major mistake that most people make here is believing that in order to find the ideal partner, they need to find someone with common interests. However, the interests are only the end goal and your two visions on how to get there might differ greatly even if your interests are the same.

Needless to say, this can further complicate the decision-making process and make the future of your company incredibly unsure. Therefore, if you eventually decide to share an equity with someone else, you need to be 100 percent sure that you’ve made the right choice. Here are a couple of tips and tricks which might help you out.


Skills that complement yours

One of the first mistakes you can make when choosing a partner is looking for someone who boasts the same set of skills that you have. First of all, this is a bit impractical, seeing as how you will still have to find someone to deal with those other tasks neither of you is capable of handling. Second, it could cause a no small amount of argument over who gets to do what. For instance, if both of you believe you are top-notch negotiators, there might come a moment where you need to decide on who is going to take the lead during an important meeting. This is just one of the reasons why you should definitely pick someone with skills that complement yours.

Same corporate values

Unlike with skills, one of the most important things when choosing a partner is investigating their values. If your partner is competitive and combative instead of being a team player, it is quite easy to figure out that this isn’t going to work. Their stances towards the environment are important, as well, seeing as how in the 21st century, you will have to choose whether or not to go with a green problem-solving method every step of the way. Finally, you need to have the same attitude towards your employees, in order to present a united front in their eyes. On the other hand, being able to play good cop, bad cop in the office might be a solid tactic. Provided you can agree upon the roles to everyone’s satisfaction.


Trust

While a lot of people hold friendship in high regard when it comes to a great business partnership, you need to keep in mind that trust is much more important. Not only can friendship be an obstacle, seeing as how you might avoid taking a strong opposite stance out of fear that it will hurt your friendship but also cause you to develop a clouded judgment in various situations.

A lack of trust, on the other hand, can be as dangerous, even if it is completely unfounded. Doubting every single word that comes out of your partner’s mouth can be devastating for your company in the long run, which is why you should avoid teaming up with people you don’t trust. One of the ways to handle this situation is to conduct a simple business check on them before you start and then wait and see if they will openly admit to any wrongdoings they might have participated in, in the past.

Conclusion

Once you let a partner in, your success becomes intertwined with their performance, their decisions and their intentions. Because of this, you need to make sure that you are on the same page every step of the way. Of course, working with someone you’ve never met before takes some time, but a lot of people tend to mistake the lack of coordination with essential incompatibility. The first issue will improve over time, the latter won’t. Therefore, you need to learn how to differentiate between the two before it’s too late.



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About Emma L. Advanced Pro  Business consultant

3 connections, 0 recommendations, 158 honor points.
Joined APSense since, February 18th, 2016, From Sydney, Australia.

Created on Dec 25th 2017 03:06. Viewed 556 times.

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