I’m going to share with you nine things that if somebody can bring to the table as a good potential partner.
I love partnering. It’s the one thing that I’ve probably done better than any single thing in business that has helped me the most, because I’m completely aware of my inadequacies. know that me plus one other person is probably a good formula for success. I call it “one plus one equals done” in my world.
I want to share with you nine reasons why I would partner with somebody. I’ve used many of these. You may want to partner with somebody because:
They Have Time You Do Not Have
For example, let’s say you can’t quite quit your full-time job, which I don’t recommend anyway. I think starting with somebody who can carry the lion share of the time and burden there, that’s a good partnership. And I’ve always partnered with people because they have time that I don’t have. I could not get the business off the ground because I do not have the time. At this point in my life, I’m involved in so many different things. This is a critical component of why to partner, because I don’t have the time to give any one of these businesses that much of my undivided time and attention.
They Can Fill A Critical Role
Maybe it’s being the CEO because they have great leadership, or they have pre-existing experience with this business. <aybe it’s the CFO, Chief Financial Officer. I don’t know how big the startup is, or if somebody gave you venture capital, but they may ask you to bring on someday like this. Maybe it’s somebody who is going to handle marketing or manufacturing, a programmer.
They’re going to have a critical role within this company. Maybe it’s normally something that you pay big money for and/or if you’ve lost this person, your company kind of is majorly affected. They’re just a critical component, an MVP. So this would be worth bringing them on as a partner
They Bring Capital to the Table
Early on, I had to bring people on for this reason, and it got expensive. I had to buy him out for a good bit of money, but I look back and I know without their capital, I could have never started the business. So it was worth it to me. So they brought capital to the table.
They Bring Industry Experience
I’ve partnered with people because they know the industry better than I do. When I started my construction company, I didn’t know the difference between any two screwdrivers. I’m just very organized and good at branding, but I had to bring in people with industry experience. Now I have tons of industry experience. I’m fortunate to have an engineering staff, I have a designer on staff, I have a kitchen designer on staff. I have somebody with 25 years of construction experience within my office.
In another company, I’m partnered with a person who’s worked with Fortune 500 companies in the digital marketing space. I just formed another partnership in the last two weeks.
They Have a Specific Licensing
There’s a lot of businesses that require certain licensing, I know within construction you have to have certain licensing. If you’re going to have a bar, you need to have an alcohol license and maybe you need somebody who has that.
You may choose to get the licensing yourself. I went and took a class for a contractor’s license with a builder’s designation. I still don’t know how I passed that test. It was the hardest test I’ve ever taken in my life. Why? Because I’ve never done any of it. I did not want to be dependent, but you may have to because it would take you too long to get this off the ground. I did not want to be dependent, so I got the licensing myself, but other people do partner for licensing.
You Have a Friendship
…with the understanding that the two of you will work harder together than you would by yourself.
My son has a friend who he’s in business with, and they just got great chemistry and of course, they know that two of them can get more done in less time. They know they can divide and conquer, but friendship was the catalyst.
I have a business relationship, that’s also a friendship. I have a real estate partnership with somebody I’ve known for my entire life, and our friendship was the catalyst for it. If they are valuable to you, it’s more fun, and you just know it’s going to be better. Hey, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. I have changed my opinion over the years on partnering with friends.
They Have a Network
They can connect you to people that you could never meet yourself. I’ve partnered with people for networking. They have contacts, connections, relationships with critical people that you just simply do not have and you desperately need for your business to succeed.
They Have Opposite Qualities of You
if you’re passive, you need an aggressor, like a lion needs a lamb and a lamb needs a lion. If you’re passive, you need somebody who’s the aggressor, and if you’re super aggressive, it’s not a bad idea to have somebody who’s the opposite of you.
I’m a little bit too aggressive. So I have business partners that are calmer and that’s good, I need that. In my first business, my partner was a good counterbalance for me.
I remember I fired somebody when I was in my mid-20s, and he says to me after the person’s gone, “If you continue to fire people like that, you know we’re going to be in a fistfight every Friday in the parking lot with somebody. You just need to let me know so I can be ready.” And his whole point was, you got to tame it down, there has to be a better way to do it, and I’ve given stories on how he would fire people and they’d apologize for being horrible because he was good at it. He was the lamb and I was the lion. There were times when I needed to be the lion and it worked, no question. But there were times when I needed a softer version and having a partner that had the opposite qualities of me was beneficial.
Work Speed is Increased
Sometimes the to-do list is so big that I needed the speed of two people. I needed to divide and conquer. There were just too many things that were necessary to get done so that speed is a critical reason why you would partner because you’re racing this business to the marketplace. You’re trying to get a proof of concept out there fast.
So consider partnering with somebody to help build a business faster and bigger. I’ve always said 50% of a lot is better than 100% of a little.
