Tips to Becoming a Strong Business Partner

One of the biggest challenges of starting your own business is choosing the person you're going to work with. If you've been dreaming of starting your business with the right person in mind, don't assume that it'll be fun and games just because you know each other. A business partnership is like a marriage in which you'll run across some rough patches. It's important to find a business partner who's complementary and compatible with your personality and skills.

Share the same values.

Whether you're writing or re-writing your business plan, you should ensure that you and your business partner share the same dreams, hopes, goals, and vision for your business. Does your business partner hope of becoming the next big tech giant, while you have dreams of starting your own Starbucks? It's imperative to share the same goals, values, and work ethic in order for your business to succeed.

Have complementary skills.

Since you and your partner will have varying strengths and weaknesses, you'll want to have complementary skills. For example, if your business partner is a shy tech nerd who wants to start a tech business, then you should handle the customer service, marketing, and sales tasks. Having complementary skills allows both business partners to focus on what they are good at and what they enjoy doing.

Involve your partner in business planning.

Before launching your business, you need to make sure if you work well together. One way to do this is to collaborate on your business plan. By collaborating on major projects and focusing on objectives such as your marketing strategy, mission statement, and revenue goals, you'll have a better idea if you'll benefit from a business partnership. It's important to have a business partnership that is mutually beneficial.

The business planning stage is an important part of the process. Most partnerships don't work out during this stage. By collaborating together on a business plan, you can build trust and ensure that your objectives are perfectly in line with your vision of success. Negotiation training is a helpful tool for determining if you and your partner work well together.

Have compatible personalities.

Your business partnership will be one of the longest relationships you'll ever have in your life. You and your partner should work so well together due to your compatible leadership styles and work styles. Good relationships are give and take, so it's important to understand your business partner.

Write a list of your personality facets. Then combine your list with your partner's. Who's the daydreamer and who's the logical one? Who's the early bird and who's the night owl? Who can handle emails and who can handle conference calls? Who's good with crunching numbers and who's good with sales? These are all important factors to consider when finding a business partner with a compatible personality.

Always be honest, no matter what.

You must remain transparent and honest for the entirety of your business partnership. This will do more than establish trust. Your clients, customers, employees, and vendors can tell when someone is lying to their face or is trying to flip the truth. Once someone has a bad feeling about you and our business, you'll want to change things around.

On the other hand, you should stop pretending that you have all the answers. Don't be afraid to admit when you don't understand something. People will appreciate your honest, especially if you promise to follow-up with an answer to their question or concern.

Stick to your commitments.

Staying true to your word can help build trust between you and your partner. When you say that you'll deliver a project by a certain time, it's important to follow through with this commitment. Making sure that you meet a promised deadline relieves your business partner of any concern that something could go wrong. Being free from this concern can also establish goodwill.

Starting and strengthening a business partnership takes time and effort on each person's part. A strong business partnership can improve your business during bad times and good. This will become an important asset if an emergency or business issue arises in which your partner can provide valuable assistance.