What To Look For In A Business Partner

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A business partner can be an immense help when starting your business, but a bad business partner can also damage your business quite a bit. In this article I will explain the traits to look for in a business partner, then I will cover what traits to avoid, and then I will give some ideas for how to find business partners.

What To Look For In Business Partners

There are a few professional and character traits that are an absolute must. These are honesty, integrity, and being a pleasant person to work with. If the person you choose as your business person is not honest, that can cause severe problems down the road. Plus you will never be able to fully trust them.

The potential business partner must also be easy to get along with and to work with. After all, you will be working together every day for a very long time. Together you need to make up a strong team.

Additionally, it is extremely helpful if you and your business partner have worked together on a project before. I realize that not everyone has such a situation where they can get past co-workers to join them in their business venture, but if you have already worked together with your business partner in the past, statistically, the company has a greater chance of success.

Paul Graham of yCombinatior always discusses how in his startup incubators, teams that have worked together in the past tend to be more successful.

Another thing to look for in a business partner is that they have the same goals as you do, and are equally passionate about the project, and have a long-term outlook.

And, of course, the business partner must bring something valuable to the business. Do they have many years of experience in a needed skill? What valuable assets does the business partner bring to the business? Also, look for a proven track record of success.

What To Avoid In Business Partners

Some things to avoid in potential business partners are some of the opposites of things you should look for. Avoid scheming and dishonest people. They will ruin your business like a cancer before the business even gets going. Always aim to do business with good, honest people.

Additionally, this is a debatable point, but I would suggest avoiding crazy people. Sometimes crazy can be brilliant, but you have to also consider what effect this person has on the overall team.

Another thing to avoid in potential business partners is jumping into a partnership. As mentioned earlier, people who have worked together before have a greater chance to succeed. So one thing you can do with a person with whom you have never worked with before is to set up a short trial period where you test out whether the two of you make a good team.

Where And How To Find Business Partners

If you do not have a business partner and need to find one with particular skills, you can attend various industry events and network. Once you start building business relationships, and expanding your business network, some potential business partners can come from the people you meet directly, or people to whom you may get introduced. Here is a video explaining some good practices of how to network at events with business cards.

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Further Business Resources

For more business-starting resources, please take a look at our business planning mobile apps. Here is the iOS business plan app and here is the Android business plan app.  Additionally, here is the iOS fundraising app. And here is the Android fundraising app. And here are our business apps on the Kindle. And here is an article where I give the argument that our Android apps are the best business apps on Android.

And please check out and subscribe to my YouTube channel where we cover many marketing topics.

Author: Alex Genadinik

 

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