How to find a business partner

A partnership is like a marriage in important ways, like requiring a high level of trust and the fact that not anyone will do. And, as in marriages, divorce is common; in fact it' s more so in partnerships. Since the divorce rate is running at 53%, you should proceed carefully in taking an important business risk with less than a 50-50 statistical outlook. Unfortunately business breakups are often unpleasant and expensive. We have tracked over a hundred different businesses since 1989 and for some of our books, we turn to these people for their experience.
So when we added a chapter on "Overcoming Obstacles" to Secrets of Self-Employment, we asked our business owners about their worst business experiences. Overwhelmingly, the worst experiences involved failed partnerships. So, when we turned to this same 100+ businesses about a year later when writing Teaming Up: The Small Business Guide to Collaborating, to ask them about the ways in which they collaborated and how interested they were in collaborating in the future, we were surprised to learn that 61% were actively engaged in some form of business collaboration and 70% wanted to do more in the future.

Does hope spring eternal or is there a rational way to explain this? We think both are true. First, there are compelling reasons, such as your own, for finding co-venturers. Second, there are more ways to collaborate than having a partnership, which requires a high level of intimacy, albeit business intimacy. Intimacy does not develop from a contract, however laboriously and carefully drafted.

So our advice in finding a partner is to "date first." Engage in some of the other forms of business collaboration, such as jointly bidding on projects, subcontracting with another firm or principal, engaging in cross-marketing efforts, or making mutual referrals. It's a lot easier to find someone for these more limited risks than to find a full partner.

By: Paul and Sarah Edwards