Partnerships…

Hey All,

Happy belated 4th of July. I hope you all had a great weekend. I received an email recently asking what my thoughts were on partnerships. Here it is:

Hi Steve,

I am moving forward with my planning on starting the window cleaning business.  I cannot wait.  I am wondering what your thoughts are on looking for a partner to help build this business quickly.  I plan on following your plan, and I want this to be very successful right from the beginning…thinking that 2 people would be better than one in building this.
 
George

My Response:

Hi George:

Good morning.  I'm glad you're excited about your window cleaning launch.  I really am.  If you put forth the required effort consistently the first 30 to 60 days after you launch, you won't look back.  What'll ensure that you do this is that I think you said you were going to do window cleaning full time, right?  So the retail job will be gone once you launch your window biz?  This'll free up all kinds of time for you, so that'll be great.

Whew…I really don't know about a partner. Especially since you don't know who that partner might be.  Perhaps if you and a long time friend or childhood buddy were going to crank it up, then I'd say great.  But a partner for the sake of a partner isn't very doable in my opinion.

The reason is because it takes consistent effort, especially at the beginning.  So both of you would need to get involved in similar ways and spend the same amount of time/effort.  I've seen many, many partnerships where one person does all or most of the work.  The other one is more relaxed and slacks a bit a more.  This'll create resentment in the one doing all the work.  This happens quite frequently actually.  I just heard of a partnership in colorado go bad between good friends because one person was doing all of the business generation.  All his partner did was show up to do the actual jobs.

I don't want to sound too negative on partnerships because I'm sure sometimes they work well.  If you do go this route, I'd map it out with a complete expectation of duties between both of you. Will you both market?  Or will it be only you and he/she is only expected to work with you on the jobs?  How much money will he/she invest in the marketing?  Or is it all your money?  Just some questions to think about.  And how will he/she be paid?  A 50/50 split? 

If I were thinking a partnership for my business (which I wouldn't do), I personally would rather hire someone to market for me.  Pay them either hourly or pay 'em a large percentage of the job since he/she found the job for you.  There are all kinds of ways to structure a partnership.  It doesn't have to be 50/50 either.  Maybe you're going to do the majority of the work so you can structure it 70/30 with the bulk of the revenue going to you. 

Two people being better than one is a good one…in theory.  Especially 2 people in a "partnership" right out of the starting gate.  My thoughts on it are this if you want another person to assist…why make him/her a "partner"?  Why not just pay him/her a flat amount or percentage of a job? Anyway…again, just some thoughts to think about.  Take care for now.

Regards,

Steve