Many when starting a business ask to have a partner, it all depends on the situation itself. Dealing with partners is the toughest situation to be in, requires patience and understanding of your partners personality. Let me cut to the chase here, if you can create the business without a partners then go ahead. If this is not the case and the problem is a financial one, then you may accept a silent partner that must have a slight lower percentage or equal share, because you are doing most of the work and this creates problems in the future that you cannot see at the present time. See the problem with partners arises only later on in the business, it always seems that one person is doing more than the other because when you began the agreement it was a 50 50 share. So try to never get in partnership unless the expertise is needed, if not; a silent partner would be a perfect solution, you handle all the management issues and the partner provides the finances. Offource this changes when the partner is your real life partner (husband/wife). Many of my friends created successful business with there real life partners, but many lost good friends from business partners, i’m one of them. The only way to test people is when the issue of money is in the equation. If you had a friend that you care about, do not enter into a partnership with, thats my advise. When time slowly passes some partners start relaying on the other, creating a vacuum in the business and the business starts to decline in efficiency, productivity you name it. Only seek a partner for a financial backing, keep the management and responsibility with your self, only accept in partners when expertise of both are complementary like lawyers.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 6th, 2007 at 1:11 pm and is filed under Startups. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.