March 22, 2018

Why You Need A Business Partner?

Have you heard the expression “two heads are better than one”? There’s a lot of truth to it and it’s one of the many reason why it can be a good idea to work with a business partner.

If this is something you’ve been considering, you may be interested to learn more about the various advantages working with a business partner has. Let me start by telling you that working by yourself isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Most traditional businesses can’t be run by one person. It takes a lot of people and capital to open a store or build a large corporation. Heck, even most doctors, lawyers, and accountants don’t go into business by themselves anymore and instead choose to open a group practice.

We are in an interesting position as online business owners and entrepreneurs. We can get a business off the ground by ourselves, simply outsourcing the occasional task here and there. Most online entrepreneurs don’t consider working with a business partner. Yet there are some definite benefits to do this. Let’s take a quick look at them.

If you’ve ever sat down and brainstormed with a fellow online marketer, you know that something interesting happens. You come up with more ideas and plans than what you could have done on your own. There’s something to be said about the synergy that happens when two people with like-minded interests and goals get together.

A business partner can also be helpful when it comes to areas that you aren’t well versed in or that you simple don’t like. For example, one of you could be in charge of creating the overall business strategy, create content, and work on things like SEO and split testing. The other could be in charge of customer service, social media, and connecting with potential JV partners or media outlets. You can each work on what you’re good at and what you enjoy, making the whole process more fun for everyone involved.

You can also move more quickly and get more done when there’s two of you working on a project. This means you’ll be able to bring your products to market more quickly and grow your overall business, mailing lists, and reach faster than if you had to do it all by yourself.

Another important advantage to having a business partner as an online marketer is gives you freedom and peace of mind. Things won’t grind to a halt if you get sick or decide to take a few weeks off. You have someone else there to pick up the slack and you’ll do the same for them.

Last but not least it’s a lot more fun. Working by yourself can get lonely at times. It’s hard to pull yourself out of a funk when things aren’t working as expected or you’re simply having a bad day. Having someone else there to talk to and cheer you up is priceless. Knowing it’s not just you who relies on the business becoming a success is also very motivating. It will make you stick it out and push a little harder when the going gets tough.

All in all, a business partnership with the right person can be a great thing that will not only help you succeed, but also make work more fun.

What To Look For In A Good Business Partner

Before you being to consider working with a business partner, there are a few things you should know. They all relate to what you should be looking for in said partner to make sure it’s a good match.

Working with a business partner can be a very pleasant experience, or it can become something you end up regretting. To give yourself the best shot at success keep these things in mind as you start to consider choosing a partner to go into business with.

Look For Someone You Enjoy Spending Time With

Start by spending some time with people you’re considering partnering up with. You are going to be working together on a regular basis and connect either in person or virtually several days per week. Your business partner is someone you spend more time with than anyone else outside your immediate family. Make sure the two of you get along and have fun working together. It will make things go more smoothly and you’ll enjoy the long hours it takes to build a successful business.

If there’s tension from the beginning or the other person just doesn’t get you, move on and look for someone else. Unless you thrive on this kind of discussion and conflict. If it makes you think deeper and work harder, and you enjoy the process of knocking heads together, go for it.

Look For Someone With Similar Goals and Values

Finding someone that shares your goals and values is another helpful tip. When you’re working towards the same goal and have similar ideas of how much work you want to put into this new business venture, and what you’d like to get out of it eventually, it’s easier to stay on track and work as a team.

The same goes for core values. Are you willing to help someone out and do a bit of pro-bono work, or do you want to squeeze your prospects for every penny you can get? If you find yourself on opposite ends on things like this, it will create a lot of tension and makes it that much more likely that you’ll fail in the end.

Yes, you’ll grow together and you don’t have to agree on everything, but if you have the same core values and common interests, it will make it that much easier to build something together.

Look For Someone That Compliments Your Skillset

Last but not least, look for someone that has skills that you’re lacking. It’s one of the biggest advantages of working with a business partner. If you’re a great writer and product creator, but struggle with SEO and getting traffic to your sites, look for someone who’s good at that.

If you’re great at communicating with prospects, customers, and potential JV partners, but lack the technical skills to get everything up and running smoothly, look for someone with those traits. If you prefer to do the grunt work, and don’t enjoy the overall planning and strategizing, look for a partner that will do this for you.

Yes, you can outsource some tasks when the time comes, but it helps to have some of the most important skill sets covered between the two of you.

Finding The Perfect Business Partner Is All About Cultivating Relationships

Perfect business partners don’t grow on trees. It takes time to find someone you click with that you want to work with for years and years to come. That’s the point after all, isn’t it? Now that doesn’t mean that you have to be best friends or soulmates and that you need to spend most waking hours together –far from it. But it does mean that you want to find someone that’s a good fit. Someone that complements you and wants to work toward a common goal. Take a look at the “What to look for in a good business partner” blog post for more on that topic.

The next step is to find this magical person that may make your perfect business partner. It’s pretty similar to dating. You have to put yourself out there and get to know some people in your industry and in your niche. Participate in online groups. Join a mastermind. Go to conferences and events. Meet people. Make it a point to talk to everyone and start cultivating those relationships.

Not only will this increase your chances of finding someone that would make a great potential business partner, networking also helps you learn more, pick up some tips for others who are doing what you’re doing, and it allows you to find people you can collaborate with or simply cross promote each other’s sites and products.

If someone reaches out to you, take the time to get to know them. Talk about work, but also your personal life. In short, take the time to not only network, but start to build a relationship. Go the extra mile and do something for them. Share a tip, mention their website in a social media post, sign up for their affiliate program and promote them. Then see how they react. You can learn a lot from that.

Take the time to follow up on new relationships. Check in and see how things are going and if there’s something you can help them with or how the two of you could start to work together – through a cross promotion or an interview for example.

Start to grow and nurture your own little circle of online business friends. These can be people that work in the same or similar niches, or people who have a completely different target audience from yours. It doesn’t really matter since you all work on similar strategies and with similar end goals for your own businesses (think growing your list and getting more traffic for example).

As you get to know the people in your “inner circle” better, you start to get a feel for who you may want to work with more closely. Those will be your potential business partner prospects. Time to gauge interest, and maybe tackle a project together to see how things go.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *