As a follow-up to Effective Brainstorming, it is a great idea to recruit at least one partner to share in the responsibilities of organizing and operating a business as well as help with the creative process. After all, two heads are certainly better than one!
A partnership of this type is like a marriage in many ways, so it’s extremely important to find someone you can truly trust. I recommend not choosing a close family member as your business partner - especially a parent or sibling.
Being in business with a family member can be extremely stressful; even impossible to deal with. There are far more horror stories about being in business with a relative than successes. Let’s not forget the incident with singer/songwriter Billy Joel, who filed a $90 million law suit concerning his ex-brother-in-law and former manager Frank Weber. Can you imagine the tension that was around that dinner table?
Because tough decisions have to be made on a daily basis, it’s usually wiser to keep your business and personal lives separate. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t be friends with your business partner. I recommend monthly luncheons with your partner where the agenda is, absolutely no talking about work! Take this time to get to know one another. The closer the two of you become, the more likely you’ll be to forgive a trespass or two.
When starting a new business, there is a long list of items that have to be considered and addressed, such as:
• Choosing a unique company name
• Designing a company logo
• Setting up a business structure (i.e. a partnership, LLC or Corp)
• Applying for a Federal tax ID
• Setting up a business bank account
• Finding a qualified accountant for bookkeeping
• Acquiring liability insurance
• Renting office space
• Getting a business phone
• Deigning and maintaining a website
• Advertising and marketing
This is just a basic list of the things that have to be addressed in order to be recognized as a legitimate business. As you may have already guessed, it will be much easier to accomplish these things with a partner as opposed to attempting to do them all on your own and without collaboration. Having a trusted partner to help decide how to tackle these necessary steps is invaluable.
Since no individual excels in every area, each partner can divide the workload according to their individual abilities. One might be more design oriented while the other might be more apt to handle the legal issues. Don’t try to fit a square peg into a round hole - that is, unless the square peg is much smaller than the round hole.
Find out what each partner is best at doing and capitalize on those strengths. For instance, one might be great at researching, fact finding and compiling data; whereas the other might excel in translating the raw information into a viable plan of action. One could research the most cost effective ways to advertise the business, while the other could take the gathered information and turn it into a successful advertising campaign. One might find the best resource to print business cards while the other is occupied with the actual design of the card.
Don’t get hung-up on thinking you should handle 100% of this or that. Just because one partner does the initial research, does not guarantee the same partner will be the one who completes that particular task. Try not to get too personally involved in the task at hand. Be able to hand off your hard work to your partner (whom you trust) to complete what you started. It must be about team work. Accomplishing the agreed upon goal should be first and foremost in everyone’s mind.
Don’t forget to just hang out with your partner from time-to-time. Getting to know one another on a more personal level will prove to be tremendously helpful in the long run. Go to lunch occasionally and talk about anything except work!
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