Working With Partners

[togan]

Has anyone here worked with a business partner before? Or mostly solo ventures? 


I was listening to a podcast for makers/creators (which ended shortly after I discovered it only a few weeks ago! ugh!) and the topics were about handmade businesses...and the the various struggles makers have and so on. The speaker pointed out that having a business partner can help you stay focused and motivated because you're both passionate about the same thing: the success of the business. And you don't have to feel like a burden to them when others you interact with may tire of your business/creative chatter. Lastly, you hold each other accountable for tasks that need to get done. 

Does anyone have thoughts on this? 

My starting venture is small and solo. But I definitely have found some bits of the experience overwhelming. For instance I love the creative side of things...find all the other parts tedious and/or exhausting. A friend expressed they would like to be a business partner. And they have demonstrated efforts in trying to learn about what I'm trying to do. We clash on ideas a lot (just in general)...which gets exhausting. So I can't imagine an actual partnership. But I also agree with points in the podcast too. 

-Togan

[michelle]

I haven’t had business partners for my jewelry making endeavors. I tried selling for awhile, but I found the selling process to be at odds with my creativity. And as I am retired, it’s more work than I want to do at this point. But I have had partnerships in other businesses and it can make a huge difference. Fantastic with the right person; awful with the wrong person. I worked for a year as a financial advisor, and teamed up with another advisor. We had a similar philosophy toward the business, and we shared a can-do, positive attitude. I think we would have been a very successful duo, but a death in his family precipitated a move out of state for him. So it was short-lived.

Now, many, many moons ago, I was a lab tech in a small hospital. Not the same as a business partnership, but some of it applies. I worked every weekend - 16 hour shifts - so that I didn’t have to work during the week. For awhile another lab tech worked weekends with me. Again, same philosophy toward the work, and a can-do, positive attitude. It was awesome! I loved working with her. After several years, she moved away, and so other lab techs rotating through. Some were okay, others not so much. When you are working with so few people, it’s important to work as a team. Most of the problems had to do with attitude. Lab techs who preferred doing only certain tasks so tried avoid the ones they didn’t like; some who were moody and brought a shitty attitude to work; some who were failures at being able to communicate effectively.

All of this to say, that with a good match, a partnership can be fantastic, but horrible with the wrong one. Choose carefully.

[caeterle]

I have never worked with a business partner. I'm not even sure I have that much of a business going meaning it's really very small.
In fact I had never thought of selling at all when I started out, it's the fault of these people here who were too encouraging

It's funny, but I talked about this just yesterday with my mother. She said I needed someone to help me with stuff. What she meant, though, was the creative side while artisans I know would usually like to have someone at their side who cares for the business side. Advertising, selling, maybe taking pictures, social media, book keeping etc.
The creative side is mine. It's not just a business, it's an outlet and sometimes maybe even a bit of therapy. I don't see how I could share this with a business partner. Maybe if I stumbled upon the perfect person, but I haven't met that person in the last ten years.

There have been a few people who suggested kind of a partnership, but in the end they usually meant they wanted to take a design of mine and have someone else make it to sell bigger quantities. That is no partnership for me.

I also agree with Michelle. Working with the right person, great, working with the wrong person, horrible. I've seen it at work more than once.

[Michele]

NO, NO, NO. I'm too much of a type A person to work with anyone. It's a lot of work going solo, but in the end it's your baby.

[togan]

Thanks guys! Good perspective for me to consider. It always helps to hear others ideas.

I agree Cat, sharing the creative side seems like a challenge. I feel the same way in that it's an outlet/therapeutic.

[DawninCal]

There have been times that I wished for someone to take on the business side of things. Oh, how I detest keeping records, listing items, tracking inventory and all that icky stuff. But, as has been said above me, this is mine to run the way I want to whether I do it right or wrong is all on me. I think Cat is right about a tiny business. While one has to do all of the work, there really isn't that much work to do. If I had a large, busy business, I think rather than take on a partner, I'd hire an employee to do whatever tasks were assigned to them as part of their job. At this point in my life, I don't want to have to answer to anyone or consider what they want or how they would like to run things.



Dawn