Business partnerships is a good thing when it comes to business. It is an opportunity to make your business grow. However, not all the time business partnerships can be all rainbows and butterflies. In some cases, it can make or break your business in just a blink of an eye.
Consider this scenario. Imagine there are two friends who got an idea to work together as a team and split their salaries equal for both of them. At the start, it was a successful business and their customer count is growing. However, as time goes by, the performance of one outperforms the other, making customers turn their head into the one that performed better. Sooner, instead of a team, their business seemed like a battle of some sorts. And thus, their partnership began to split apart and so as their relationship.
You see, cases like this is inevitable, especially if both you and your partner are good at this field. Though partnerships can be a good or bad thing, listed below are some of the pros and cons of businesses that you might want to have a look at.
Pros
- Start-up costs is now easy to the wallet since both you and your partner will be sharing for the expenses.
- Responsibilities and work will be lighter since you will be working as a team.
- Risk and expenses are also shared together.
- Greater financial results will be achieved.
- Support and motivation is highly likely, especially if you and your partner has a good relationship each other.
Cons
- Having a partner in business means being individually liable for responsibilities and activities. If ever your partner suddenly skips town, you will be held liable for all the expenses and debt he/she have created.
- You will be sharing profits with each other.
- There will be shared decisions and ideas that may coincide with the vision you want to create on your own business.
- Friendships will be broken, especially if both you and your partner doesn’t have transparency.
Before you dive into partnership, you should first ask yourself if your business is really in dire need of a partner. And if it does, then you need to carefully opt which partnership to take.
Should you do things solo? Or do you need someone to help you out? Keep in mind that doing things solo may be a little time-consuming compared to having a partner, since you will be handling everything starting from the decision making until the output.
In some cases, there might be times where your business partner will be too lazy to work hard and will probably end up doing all the things by yourself. If you can stand procrastination, then you might as well work alone. But make sure that you won’t also end up procrastinating as well.
However, if you really want to have a business partner, then consider asking yourself the questions listed down below:
- Does your business partner have the same motivation as yours? Will you be able to cope up with him/her?
- Does both of you have the same goals, ideas, and objective on how to run your business?
- Both you and your business partner have their own unique strengths, do you think your skills will complement to his/her skills?
- Lastly, do you trust your business partner?
Now after that, you need to do a thorough research about your prospective partner. Check his/her background, skills, and other aspects to save yourself from regrets later on. If ever you hire your relative as a business partner, then that won’t be a problem. However, be mindful that there is a big difference between hiring someone you already know and someone you don’t.