How to Prepare for a New Business Partnership

You may have launched your business more or less by yourself — but as the company grows and new opportunities present themselves, you may find yourself faced with the choice of whether or not to introduce a new business partnership.

This is a big decision, and not one to take lightly. A lot of companies are made by strategic partnerships. Then again, a lot of companies are broken by bad partnerships.

Let me say this right off the bat, then: There is nothing wrong with choosing not to bring in a partner. Maybe your company has grown to a level you’re comfortable with, and you’re content to stay there, running the show on your own. There’s nothing in the world wrong with that.

But if you do want to grow, and you know you cannot do it on your own, bringing in a partner is one of the best ways to do so — providing you’re alright parting with some piece of equity in the company.

Preparing for a Business Partnership

If that’s the road you choose to go down, here are a few words of advice.

• Don’t ignore your gut. Your instincts about a person are not invalid here. If you simply do not like or trust a person, well, that means it’s going to be awfully hard to develop any kind of a sound working relationship with them. Trust…