In this post you’ll learn a few tips on the question: how to find a good business partner? and how can you tell when you find the one?
One common word of advice most people who plan to start a business get is that no one can build a successful business alone. At one point or another we always end up needing the intervention of another person. This is true even if that person is not necessarily a partner but an employee. Eventually the business grows in ways that there in nothing one can do but to split work to more than one person. When we have the right partner, the pressure as well as the load of work is lowered. Often, we don’t get it right the first time we pick our partners, and if you’ve been in a project of any scale, you certainly have an idea of what usually happens when two or more people who are not a match for each other have to work together. The project suffers.
How to find a business partner?
Finding a good businesses partner just like a romantic one requires from us the ability to see things as they are, and to do something when we notice that we found the wrong one. Here is where a romantic relationship has lots in common with a business relationship. For both, old wisdom teaches us that the best thing to do is to be slow to lifetime commitments, and be quick to end it the moment we notice it’s not working. Below are a few things you can do in order to improve the odds of finding the right partner for your business, as well as a few things you can look for in your search.
1. Seminars
Seminars are an amazing place to find people who are to some extent “like-minded”. People always say that opposites attract, and so we are led to believe that in order to have the most productive/successful relationships we are to search for people who are the complete opposite of ourselves in terms of tastes, habits, goals, etc. There is some good to that, but just like most things in life, too much of anything is a bad thing. Like mindedness means that there is some common ground between you and your partner, which can be good for bonding. When this happens you notice that you seek more time with your partner instead of the opposite, which is very important if you need to spend a long time with him/her.
2. Competitions
Yes competitions. Just like with seminars, in competitions you also get to meet people who are to some extent like you. More important than that, people who are willing to do what it takes to have their dreams realized. So, instead of just competing, there is also some good that comes from building relationships/partnerships with your competitors.
3. social media
The social media is an amazing place o find any kind of people, and business partners are no different. Chances are that there is people out here in the same situation, with a similar vision as you, who are also looking for a business partner. So, instead of using the social media as means to make friendships with people you’ll probably never meet in person, why not use them to reach out to potential business partners?
4.Competitors
As we mentioned previously, sometimes the people you’re competing with are the ones who better fit the role of business partners . We have the tendency to place people in one of two groups: “us” or “them” and the “them group” is almost always perceived as the enemy. And When we complete we are most of the time quick to put our competitors on the “them side” without stopping to evaluate whether they would be of use to our cause or not. So, just like the famous mafia boss character Don Corleone from the book The God father ,adopt the mentality that there is always room for a deal/partnership, with anyone even if they are competitors.
How can you tell when you find the one?
Finding potential business partners is the easy part. The real headache comes on trying to sort out the good from the bad. Below are 4 things you can do to increase your odds of finding the one.
1. Similar long term goals
From all, this is probably the one that matters the most. If your goal and your partners overwhelmingly diverge on the long term, that’s indicative that you should probably not be partners in the first place. The reason for this is that we tend to always choose ourselves before anybody else even if the “others” we are referring to are or friends. So, when the moment comes that your partner has to choose between being selfish or not, you’ll want him to have the same long term vision/goals/plans as you, since it’s automatic that the cause he chooses is also yours.
Divergent goals , specially if they conflict with each other, can in extreme cases make room for mutal sabotage.
2. Complementary skills and ways of thinking
After similar goals, a good partner should ideally have a complementary set pf skills/knowledge/expertise with yours. The reason for this, obvious or not, is that once in a while you’ll face problems you’re not prepared or skilled enough for. If you and your partner have the same skills, when you freeze he will freeze and vice-versa. But if you have a different set of skills from each other, there is always the chance that he will have something to add.
The same goes for mentality and beliefs. I know it’s pretty much impossible to find a person who completely complements you, but if the person you’re partnering with can do so in at least an area or two, this can be very powerful. The problems that the business world is filled with on a day to day basis requires different ways of thinking and two people with similar ways of thinking and abilities are more likely to make a losing team.
3.Time
Time is the one thing you can also use to your advantage in order to tell if the person is the right one for you. Without giving some time, it can be difficult to tell if the relationship is or will be productive in the future. Sometimes the person who seems to be the worst partner for you is the one who with time, proves to be the opposite. And you can only know that if you try a small partnership out for a while.
Summary
Finding the right person to work with is not an exact science, which means that even a person who seems to be the best for you as a partner can still fail to be so. The one true test is experience with the person.
It is all about knowledge and experience 😉
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