Partnerships – the Good And the Bad (for Some It is Horrible)

Partners for life?

Greetings from the metropolis of Cedar Crest, NM.

Today, I was on a conference call via Skype.  The meeting was in Sacramento and I was attending via video on Skype.  How cool is that?  I also meet with my mentor or “life coach,” Wes Roberts, over Skype video a few times a month.  Just too cool….but I digress.

Anyway….

Today’s post is based on my conference call today.  The call had a lot of different aspects to it but one of the topics we discussed was partnerships.  Now….if you are an entrepreneur, you probably have had some experience with partnerships.  Chances are, most of your experiences have not been that great.  I have had some great ones and some not so great.  I have heard all the horror stories….but honestly, when done right, partnerships can put you on the fast track to success.  The question is how do you do it right?

We do have a free white paper available to you on just that topic.  The white paper on partnerships was written by my business partner, Steve Maxwell.

So….

To give you some insight into our discussion on partnerships, I got some key points from the discussion. I will share with you three of them:

1) Build partnerships around projects:  More specifically, put partnerships together to accomplish a specific project.  If things go well, do another project together.  At first, you may want to do a short-term project first to get a feel for your partner. Then grow from there. Imagine being in a partnership five months down the road….with no end in sight.  Some of you may be in relationships like that….outside of business

Odds are against you if u put a partnership together to exist for the long haul.  People change, situations change, etc.  Plus….the idea of being in something for a long period of time may be exciting at first…but as time goes on…..and as things change….the thought of being in a partnership for a long time becomes a heavy load.

2) Expectations:   Having everyone on the team with the same expectations is VITAL.  When it comes to finances….projects….roles and responsibilities….if the partners are not on the same page…which means do not have the same expectations, bad feelings and animosity are soon to follow.

3) Experience: I think the key here is “entrepreneurial experience.”  If the experience is not there…if the aptitude is not there then someone will end up leading where they did not expect to lead and doing work they did not expect to do.  And in my experience, fighting battles that should not be fought.  In other words, taking a non-entrepreneur to think like an entrepreneur is an exhaustive exercise.  Now…I am not saying not to work with someone who is not an entrepreneur.  But usually, if someone has value but does not think like an entrepreneur, you are better off hiring someone with that skill set.  Which leads me to a bonus key point….

Bonus) Don’t partner with someone that you can hire.  If you want to partner with your best friend ….then just hire he or she.    If the reason your are partnering with someone is because he or she can do your taxes for free or is they can build your website for cheap…think again.

well…back to the conference call…break is almost over…..

Until next time……rob

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