Partners can be a huge asset when developing a new enterprise or strengthening your existing enterprise.  Yet a partnership can be a complex relationship, as well.  In this month’s Enterprise Insight, we discuss a few key factors in building a successful business partnership.

1)    Like Each Other
Partners will spend a lot of time with each other creating and operating an enterprise, so liking one another on a personal level is critical.

2)    Trust One Another
Trust is the foundation of your partnership.  Partners must trust each other’s judgment, competence, and integrity in order to make each step of the business as seamless as possible.

3)    Always Be Transparent
If you feel comfortable with one another, this should be easy.  All partners should be upfront about their needs, ideas, and thoughts in order to build a cooperative team and maximize innovation.

4)    Seek Complementary Skills
Look for partners who have skills or experience you lack.  This will strengthen your team immensely.  By creating a diverse team, you also minimize conflicts by allowing each partner’s expertise to shine while learning from one another.

5)    Share Similar Values
While partners may have different skills, each one should be committed to common company values, such as building vendor relationships, maximizing returns in a certain time period, or creating an incredible guest experience.

6)    Value Partner Contributions
When partners recognize and appreciate the skill, experience, and expertise that each brings to the partnership, it not only makes them more effective, but also builds the trust upon which the partnership is built.

7)    Define Equity Percentages
Doing so makes each partner’s financial role in the business clear and minimizes questions and areas of conflict down the road.  It will also provide a framework for the business to grow and expand later on, either through increased investment or sale of the business.

8)    Structure Decision-Making
There must always be someone to break a tie between two partners.  Either one partner must have formal authority to make the final decision in certain matters or all areas, or a third partner must do so.   Without a procedure for making decisions, your partnership and your business will come to a standstill.

9)    Create an Exit Plan
Be clear from the start about how a partner can exit the partnership, the partnership can dissolve, or the business can be sold to investors.

10)  Set Your Business Game Plan
Doing so will make sure all partners are on the same page about the vision for their enterprise and set a tone for growth and success as the partners work to realize that vision.

Happy Partnering…TaraPaige Group

I have been having many stimulating conversations with many of my good colleagues about the notion of remaining in the uncomfortable state. We say, the uncomfortable state is where great things happen and where you as an individual continue to grow and learn. If you are not uncomfortable and you remain status quo, as a business owner how can you continue to learn and grow?

For myself, I felt it was time once more to dip my toe even deeper back into the uncomfortable. I recently went back to school to earn my executive MBA from Stern NYU. Talk about uncomfortable. I am in a class with 57 wonderful professionals with such diverse and interesting backgrounds. It is the collaborative nature of business school and the collective ideas we each bring to the table that has my senses piqued at all times. The knowledge I have learned has already benefited my business and in turn my clients. Yes, it is the tactical knowledge, but more than that, it is the development of the relationships and how each one of us behaves in various situations.

In the hospitality business, as an operator it is so easy to put your head down and zero in on the many details without seeing the big picture. Of course the details get us all, it is where the guest experience happens. I urge you to take a look at your overall business strategy and find yourself in situations with your colleagues, your staff, your vendors to ask the tough questions, do the uncomfortable, learn something new and lead by example even if unpopular.

The real learning comes when we find we are uncomfortable… Let us all get comfortable with this.

Happy Comfort…TaraPaige Group