Best Business Expert

As a business owner you can only do so much on your own. You bring a set of skills to the table and, admittedly, there are skills that you probably don’t have. The result is that you might have a business with a big, gaping hole right in the middle of your skillset that you need to fill in.

Hiring is an option. You can hire employees or outsource. But that might not work for every circumstance. However, partnering might be your preferred choice; it’s the sharing of the workload and the credit and the reward. Partners come to a project with an ability to contribute and a desire for mutual success.

Partnering can be a great way to build your business to a degree that you weren’t able to accomplish before. That’s because partnering follows the principle that 1+1=3; when two people put their heads together, they can accomplish great things, much more than if they just each worked on their own and combined the results.

Here are some tips that can help you become a better business partner:

• When you approach someone to talk about the possibility of partnering, make sure that you are recommending an idea that has a mutual win-win scenario. Many successful business owners have a couple of great stories to tell where someone offered them an "amazing partnering opportunity" that was entirely one-sided… in the favor of the other person.

• Early on in the process, determine what skills and strengths (and even weaknesses) each person brings to the table.

• Outline the work and the reward and make sure that each gets his or her appropriate share. Fifty/fifty is not always the best option (although it is often the default option). You might consider giving more reward to a person who takes on more risk or does more work.

• Agree in writing to the parameters set out. It can sometimes feel like a hassle to do so but it is helpful when disagreements arise to go back and see what you agreed to.

• Create contingency plans. What happens if the project is super-successful? What happens if the project fails miserably? What happens if one of the partners needs to move on from the project? It doesn’t hurt to anticipate as many scenarios as possible to help you address any potential situation that could arise.

• Start with one partner and start small. If you have too many partners in your first project, you’ll end up managing instead of enjoy and contributing.

• Be prepared to lose some control. This is one of the biggest challenges that business owners face, especially those who have been operating as sole proprietors for years. Partnerships are relationships of give and take and sometimes you won’t always complete something in the same way that you foresaw.

Partnering can be an enjoyable and profitable way to grow your business. If you’re not sure where to start, consider partnering with someone you already know – such as a vendor, a client, a business peer, or a friend. This is a good way to get your feet wet.

And start small! Don’t commit your very first partnering project to aim for a massive multi-million dollar extravaganza. Instead, create something small and build from there.

Contemporary VA

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