After talking about getting a business partner for a new venture, a few readers requested that I write about how to find a good business partner. There is no playbook to find a good business partner, but I use some of the following strategies when I am seeking a partner for a new venture.
Note that each situation can vary and depending on the talents of the person, I sometimes look for all factors and sometimes just particular talents in a future partner.
-An expert- As mentioned in a post about exploring new turf, it is a great benefit to have someone who knows the industry's ins and outs, when you are starting up a new company. They usually know what to avoid and what helps in terms of growth and planning.
-Financial capacity- This is sometimes a huge factor and sometimes not. Depending on the size of the venture, I offer partnership on the amount of financial capacity people have. If a person can bring more money to the table, it is certainly a good thing, but if a person doesn't have a lot of money to invest and they have A LOT of talent, I still might take them on board as a partner.
-Experience- I really don't deal with any people who are inexperienced because I don't like to deal with the lack of knowledge some people have. It just slows down growth of a company and if there are more than just one other partner, things can get complicated.
-Involvements- If I am starting a new company and a prospective partner has connections or involvements in other companies in the same industry, I will take a closer look at them because they might be able to "pull some strings" to accelerate the company's growth.
-A little different- Say that two people want to start a web service. I would say that the ideal combination of talents should be that one person is a guru at programming and another person is a guru at marketing. Having a partner with some different expertise can help a company tremendously. There isn't much sense in having a whole lot of something and absolutely nothing else.
-A known person- I haven't really ever done business with people I don't know. The only time I do that is when someone I know brings someone they know to the team. Having the assurance that you have known a partner for a long time before you do business with them will give you a better sense of their style and abilities.
The factors always remain that you might want someone to be your business partner, but they may not want to come on board. Then there are other options such as: giving them a bigger share of the company for less investment, just hiring them for their talents instead of giving them partnership, restructure the venture as how they would like to roll it out.
It also goes to say that you should never put all your eggs in one basket and rely on a business partners talents to take a company to the top. Make sure you find the right staff and bring on more than just one other partner if necessary.
