Now-a-days, in the globalized world, competition has become a need of the day which in turn, requires many things like strong customer base, technical skills and expertise, leadership qualities, innovation, knowledge of market, etc. A single person can’t have all the skills which are required to continue a strongly established business. One needs to employ/ hire someone but this approach is for the small jobs which the entrepreneur may not be able to give his time. In order to facilitate good strategic level business decisions and other top level management tasks, one would need a business partner who can complement one’s skills and capabilities. The point to be noted here is that a business partner should complement one’s skills; they should not match with one’s skills because matching the skills can cause a conflict situation amongst the partners.
One can need a business partner at two stages of business:
- When one wants to establish a new business, or
- When one wants to expand his existing proprietary concern
Now the question arises whether what to see in a person to select him/her as a business partner. Generally, the trend is that people prefer to enter into partnerships with their family members. Also, in the maximum number of partnerships, the partnership comes to an end due to some or the other reason generating the conflicts amongst the partners. To choose a right business partner is not only a responsible but a very difficult task. One needs to do a comprehensive analysis before that. Here are some steps which may be helpful in choosing a right business partner for your venture:
- Chalk out your business plan: This is a valid step in case the business is entirely a new concern. Before deciding upon the business partner, one needs to decide upon what business he/she is going to pursue. So that, accordingly the skills and responsibilities of an ideal business partner can be decided upon.
- Write down your skills and abilities: After you have your master business plan in your hands, you should chalk down your skills and capabilities on a piece of paper.
- What more required for your business: Chalking down your skills would help you to assess what more skills and qualifications you need to accomplish your business goals and run a successful business empire.
- Select the business partner: Then you can search a person for your business who can complement your skills and who possesses the skills identified in the step 3 above. But this is not an easy task. Again the person should be trustworthy and should possess some human skills. In total, here is the list of some skills which a business partner should possess:
- You should have common shared business goals.
- He should be able to devote his time and hard work with you.
- A very necessary element, you should share mutual respect with him.
- He should be honest and trustworthy.
- He should be loyal towards the business.
- He should have the technical skills required to operate the day to day business activities.
- He should have management and leadership abilities.
- He should complement your skills and abilities.
- The person should have good conflict resolution skills.
- He should have strong relationship building abilities and a strong customer base.
- He must be a good strategist with great amount of knowledge about the competitors.
- He should have good business ethics.
- Most important, he should be financially sound.
- Choose a business partner who does not have much of the serious issues in his life else he can carry the same into the business.
- Behaviorally, he should be self motivated and should have a positive attitude.
- It would be good if he has some related practical experience.
Divya Jain is sincere, dedicated and hard working personality with zeal to learn about new issues. I like to face challenges which come across in my career. With the strength of truth and honesty, I try to give the best to my works and commitments.
