Partnering with others

I often talk to small businesses who are looking for a partner in their business. It could be because they don't feel their strengths lie in a particular area i.e. marketing or another popular reason for a business partner is that they generally work well with other people and don't fancy the thought of running a business or doing a project on their own.

Whatever the reason, having a business partner is an attractive option - it's someone to bounce ideas off; work together on a business or a project and of course, you don't need to pay them unless the business or the project takes off.

But, a word of caution for all of you who think having a business partner is the perfect option - it's often not all it's cracked up to be. Firstly, you've got the problem of FINDING a business partner - where do you start? If you don't know someone already, it's really difficult to find someone who can fill that role. I often think that someone should start a recruitment agency style business to match business partners - maybe someone wants to take on the idea!

Then, if you find someone, you're going to have to be really careful to make sure the workload is shared and gets done. What tends to happen is that one person is the 'ideas' person and the other is the 'do-er'. While the 'ideas' person tends to be generally very happy with this arrangement, the 'do-er' will become pretty annoyed very quickly if they find that they're the only person doing the work.

Oh yes, and then there's the making sure both of you are satisfied in your roles too and that you're both getting everything you want out of the relationship. Constant communication is a MUST - as is setting clear expectations from the start.

If you want to go down this line, good luck and give it a go. But remember to keep the lines of communication open.