Lynne Franks on how to assess potential partners for your new business.
We humans are tribal beings living in a separatist society. Our basic need is for connection.
Business relationships replace the extended family for many people, and our colleagues and work contacts can often be pivotal figures in our lives. I'm sure that this is one of the reasons I've started a new business, despite having a warm, loving family and lots of friends.
Assess your situation
Those of you who want to leave the corporate world to start your own business may find it difficult at first to work on your own. Being responsible for yourself and your business is very different from working at a job where you have the back-up of colleagues, bosses, and group decisions.
If you want to start an enterprise and have been at home concentrating on your family, you ll probably find it easier to work on your own. Being solely responsible for your family s schedule, budgets, and general organisation is good experience for being an independent entrepreneur.
But if you re already part of a small entrepreneurial business and want to break away to do your own thing, you know that if you work with the right team, with all the chemistry going, it can be great fun.
And even if your enterprise is essentially a one-woman operation, there's no reason why you have to work entirely on your own. There are various ways of linking up with others, which will add value to your business and make the process of working far more enjoyable.
Types of partners
The reason for taking on a partner in your business can be purely financial. Such partners are basically investors, who are rarely involved in the day-to-day running of the company.
But there is often just as much practical reasoning for forming a different kind of partnership. Your gifts and talents may need balancing with another person's skills. And you may really enjoy the joint responsibility.
When deciding who would make the ideal partner, think very carefully about approaching close friends, family, and spouses. There's so much existing baggage that comes into a business partnership when the personalities involved already have a close personal relationship, that it puts extra pressure on all the way around. Balanced partnerships work better when the relationship is strictly business.
Ground rules
Business partners can fall out really badly, especially if they are your romantic partners, too. My ex-husband and I worked pretty well together when he joined my agency some years after I founded it. It was the marriage that suffered though, with all our conversations at home centring on the business. I remember our children sitting in the back of our car on several occasions, asking us to stop talking shop. If only I'd listened, I suspect my marriage might have been a more intimate experience.
When initially negotiating with your business partner, you have to decide how much ownership you each have. If you are investing the same amount of money and have equal responsibilities and skills in running the business, then it would presumably be fair to have an equal division of shares.
But for those of you who recognise your strong leadership qualities, an equal partner may not be comfortable for you, with every decision always having to be discussed in detail by both of you. Bear in mind that if the share division is fifty-fifty, it s stalemate if you have a disagreement.
The important thing to remember when creating a balanced partnership is that whatever the personal ties are with your partner, there needs to be clarity between you, with an acknowledged division of responsibilities.
You should work out from the beginning how you would pass on the shares if the partnership didn t work out. You must also be clear about whether there is joint signing of cheques, who has the authority to order supplies, and who would be the outside mediator, should there be a dispute.
This may all sound rather negative, but it s better to be prepared for the worst.
Partnerships in business are like any relationships nothing is guaranteed forever.
Answer these simple questions in order to focus your mind on this issue:
Do you prefer your own company to being with others?
Do you consider yourself an independent person?
Do you prefer to make decisions on your own or do you like to share the process?
Are you open about your financial situation or would you rather keep such matters to yourself?
