Venturing Into Business Partnership
When two or more people have known each other a few years and decide to take the plunge into a business together, there are a few considerations they should look at before making it official. Being business partners is very similar to being married as every decision one person makes will affect the other and there is going to be time when they can not agree on things. Going into business with a friend is going to take good communication as well as periods of compromise.
It will also need to be an equal partnership to prevent one person from being overly dominating
which may eventually ruin the business as well as the friendship. Although the pair may have known each other for years and believe they understand their habits, there are going to be differences in the approach on the job than in their approach at the ball game or the fishing hole.
A complete, undisputable outline of responsibilities will have to be established so there can be no confusion about which partner is responsible for what function in the business as well as steps needed to reconcile any personality struggles that arise. Although they may known each other well, when it comes to running a business, it is easy to place blame on someone than it is to accept self responsibility.
When disagreements begin and there will be arguments, they should never take place in front of customers or other employees. Disagreements should be handled in the professional manner with workplace protocol and not like a bickering married couple. Some folks who went into business with a friend, in fact, use that thinking to stem arguments when they begin to argue, one will comment that they are acting like an old married couple, which usually sparks laughter and they can then work out their difference to the betterment of the business.
When going into business with a friend both must be willing to accept the faults of the other and understand they are going to have different approaches to the same circumstances. Understanding those differences will lead to the same results which should head off many disagreements with the simple notion that people will do things differently while reaching the same conclusion. They also have to have the same goals in mind before the business gets off the ground and have to agree on time lines with which to achieve those goals.
While this will be part of their basic business plan they will also have to agree on ways to monitor the goals to insure the business is on track to achieving them without laying individual blame if they fall short. Above all, no matter good of friends they are or how long they have known each other everything relating to the business needs to be in contract form. Every aspect of running the business needs to be in writing and not just a handshake. After all, even people in love who get married may need to sign a pre nuptial agreement.
Obinna Heche:
Delivering the best home based business ideas and opportunities so you can work at home successfully..
http://www.homeincomeportal.com/obhmy365/
The Importance of Mastermind Groups in Business
One of the points no one mentions in business is the importance of mastermind groups. You can often hear or read that you need a mentor to take a step ahead for your business.
When I am working with my employees or collaborators I realized that I discover many more things than when I work alone. You can get more even if you have partners to work with. With partners you can share customers and cross promote. In this way you can promote too many more people and offer bigger and various product solutions.
But the best point is you can share ideas. You enlarge or view and can improve your mission and strategy. You can know things that have never thought before or even you can realize that something you thought was useless or not important is instead good for your business. You can also discover your defects and qualities. In this way you can reduce your error rate and have continuous lessons learned results.
Your partners can also perform the role of a customer providing you with useful feedback on your products and services. You can know in advance if you are in the right path or if you need to change part of your business. If every partner has a different mentor you can share the different experiences and improve your know-how. Also if you partner has the same mentor you can discover something you did not pay attention to. It is like when you made your school works with your school mates. You got better results and in a shorter and faster way.
There are basically two ways to establish and keep your relationship with your partners.
The first is an unstructured way, i.e. you contact them when you need a suggestion or a support for a solution. This is very common when you everyday call one or two of best partners through Skype or Messenger. The second is a structure way. This is suggested when the number of partners you would talk to simultaneously is greater than 2.
These groups of partners are called mastermind groups. Mike Filsaime has always claimed that his success relied also on mastermind groups. You discover you know less when you work alone. But mastermind groups, being a structured way to partner, must be organized.
You should have an agreement before starting a mastermind group. There should be a memorandum of understanding, rules to follow to be loyal to the other partners and not to infringe property protection statements. Also you need to commit yourself to be active within your mastermind group. This means you have to propose ideas and initiatives as well as to guarantee your presence at meetings.
Meetings are the moments when the partners share ideas and support. These should be held at least once every two weeks. Every week would be ideal. The duration should not exceed two hours as we know human concentration is not going to last long.
Meetings should be structured, i.e. there should be an agenda in place.
Two roles must be defined and covered every time. One is the role of chairman, i.e. the person who is going to prepare and distribute the agenda, to prepare the meeting infrastructure (i.e. he/she must check the Internet connection and the details for the chatting room), to prepare and deliver support material, to forward extraordinary rules, to communicate variations or special details, to collect data for the meeting minute, to provide follow-ups for the meeting, etc. There are many other things a chairman should perform and these depend on the way the scope of the meeting is. The second role is that of the Time Keeper. This is the person that controls the time of each conversation. It is important that the conversation is controlled, i.e. not all people talk simultaneously and who is going to speak is mentioned in the agenda (when, who and about what).
The best solution is to discuss every time about the problems, issues and topics related to one of the members. This is suggested especially before a new product launch. In that moment all the partners can provide suggestions, tips and tricks and other ideas to improve the launch.
There are also ethical rules to follow. I would give you some examples but you can use your imagination or focus on your needs to think to other points. It is aimed that everyone commits himself to support the others in the promotion sharing customers, secrets, ideas, etc. It is aimed that everyone respects the others without revealing outside the group secrets or strategies and even not use them if not authorized. It is aimed that you can provide help in forums, groups, with customers especially in difficult moments.
It is appreciated that you have a database where you store all the meeting minutes and eventually tools and materials to be shared. A forum for members only should be set up and everyone has to commit to be active. Many groups start very well and in few weeks you can see that the forum has almost no new post. A moderator for the forum should be assigned every week. Forum posts should be mentioned in the agenda for the next meetings and eventually assigned to a priority or person if related to issues to solve.
Never think that meetings are useless. Sometimes I heard conversations I thought were of pour quality and at the end I found even a single solution for my business that saved me time and money. The mastermind groups are really the secrets of business men even of those who have already a good business in place.
Another good point is that you can ask the members of your group to provide a testimonial for you for your next product launch and support your credibility and notoriety posting in forums, writing articles and press releases on your products, maybe in exchange for a good JV commissions. The price is really worth. With your partners you can also share your training material and discuss about new strategy to create together. Sometimes you can really modify or change your business model.
What is important to maintain a mastermind group is to assure mutual respect and correctness. You can also start a mastermind group with some of your customers or students (if you are a trainer) and you will discover how much more you can learn also from those who are expected to have less experience than you. You have to have a constant learning approach, i.e. every discussion should provide you ideas and suggestions for your next business.
Basically for you mastermind groups you need to have a chatting room, a forum and a database (a server space) where to store your common information. You can only improve your business if you have a mastermind group. Do not isolate yourself and be convinced to know everything and have no defects. Talking to other people you can really discover better yourself and see something that was hidden within you until that moment.
Daniele Protti of http://www.davincistrategylab.com provides business management services to online businesses, offering courses, dedicated training programs to their employees or collaborators. You can request for any kind of support with the aim to finally create a vision for your business.
Earn Great Profit Through Partnerships
When small businesses compete with large businesses, it is inevitable that they will encounter a lot of difficulties because they do not have the necessary capitalization and other resources that these larger companies have. In addition, in most cases, these smaller companies cannot take a lot of risks because they need to have an assurance that the investments they made will pay off even during the short term so that they can still exist in the future.
So what can a small company do then to be able to compete with their large counterparts? Well, it has been discovered that partnerships with other small companies will enable them to become more profitable and even enable them to take advantages of more capitalization. This is because the income statement of a single small business entity may not look attractive at all for some financial institutions for these businesses to take a loan. But when the finances of several small businesses are combined together, these financial institutions will take a second look at the said endeavor.
You should also note that these kinds of partnerships will spread the risks of entering a new market so that these small companies can be more innovative and creative in their approaches in attracting potential customers. In addition, these partners can provide the necessary distribution channel for your product and services to be made available to a larger number of customers while minimizing distribution expenses at the same time.
There are some people who say that partnering with the bigger businesses is better though. But while these kind of partnerships certainly have its advantages, you should note that in most cases you need the help of the bigger companies more than they need your help. Because of this, you will notice that most of these partnerships end up with the smaller company compromising some factors just to let the deal push through.
This scenario is certainly unlike the case when you partner will businesses that has the same size as yours because here, the grounds of negotiation are equal so the negotiating processes will be less painful while providing benefits for both parties as well.But take note that you should also choose your partners very well because a nice partner could turn into a fierce competitor in a single day.
So while this collaboration may sound extremely attractive to some, it is definitely important to do your research and even let your partners sign a contract so that you can be sure that your business practices and processes are protected. There are certainly many things you should consider before going into these types of partnerships but a lot of businessmen do this nowadays to improve company performance and profitability.
Obinna Heche:
Delivering the best home based business ideas and opportunities so you can work at home successfully..
http://www.homeincomeportal.com/obhmy365/
The Risk Of Joint Business Partnerships
When you begin your own business you take a lot of risks that are naturally involved. One of the many risks you may face is issues or concerns with going into business with outside investors. You may have to take a bank loan or perhaps there is someone you know who has faith in your business and decides to loan you start up money. No matter who exactly is providing the funds, using outside investors can create some nasty situations. Here are three examples of this and keep them in mind to help protect your business.
You may face added pressure to your life, pressure on top of pressure. When you choose to use outside financial backers you run the risk of those persons putting extra and unneeded pressure in your business life. Running your business can be stressful enough. There is so much to keep track of and a lot of juggling with your time. Your backers may do a lot of checking up on you with phone calls or emails.
Wondering exactly what is happening with the business and how profitable it has become. You really want to feel comfortable with the person you get financial assistance from. Someone who is patient and understanding as your business grows. Partner with someone who is emotionally supportive as well as supportive with money.
Money can bring out the worst in people. People can be full of greed, selfishness and become persistently pushy. You may hear a lot of talk about being paid back soon. They may begin to say that they should be earning part of your profit since they loaned money to start your business. Backers can become overly pushy with questions on how the business is flourishing. This can all lead to some rather emotional outbreaks at times. Its best to set guidelines with your loan officer or silent backer pre-loan to prevent these issues from ever occurring.
Unfortunately some discussions of money lead to court appearances and lawsuits. When people become heated over money they can be quick with their tongue and create a falling out of business partnerships. It can often be prevented but if this should arise be smart. Do not let emotions take control. Try to keep a cool head and concentrate on being fair about the situation and to get it resolved quickly.
Business involves money and money can create problems. Your safest way to prevent any issues with your outside investor is to create out strict guidelines to keep all of the above out of your life. If you make sure that both parties agree on these guidelines, you are sure to have a much more successful business outcome.
Obinna Heche:
Delivering the best home based business ideas and opportunities so you can work at home successfully..
http://www.homeincomeportal.com/obhmy365/