Starting your own business can be a worrying time. It is a moment in which you need to develop great trust – in your own capabilities, in the market, and in the people with whom you collaborate.
You’re likely to pair up with a business partner to help spread the cost, the workload, and the worry, but splitting your business in half is not a decision that should be taken lightly. It’s not just the risk of choosing a business partner who might turn out to be incompetent or untrustworthy. Hopefully the chance of that is pretty low. But just as damaging can be the act of choosing a partner whose skills, experience, and personal chemistry are not complementary to you own.
In this life, we often tend to hang around with like-minded people. But even though you may find someone else just like you who, therefore, sees the genius in your start-up idea, it doesn’t mean they’re right for the job. Indeed, while you may dream of cloning yourself when the workload gets heavy, you will make a far smarter decision if you work towards finding someone whose strengths match your weaknesses. If you have tons of great ideas but trouble making a decision, for example, you need someone with the patience to listen, the judgement to sift the wheat from the chaff – and the clinical touch when it comes to decision-making.
Even when you find your fabled ‘better half’ of the business world, it’s important not to rush into things. If you’ve known the person a while, all’s good – but make sure you understand each other and get an agreement on paper before you go too far. If you’re working with a relative stranger, get to know them for at least a year before committing.
This new flowchart makes an excellent job of delineating the different management types, and seeing which ones complement others. Use it to figure out just what it is you’re bringing to the table – and what it is you need from a potential business partner.
