In This Issue:

1. Partnering for Profits
2. Meet America's PremiereExpert: Bart Queen
3. What Lance Is Doing That You Aren’t
4. Normal Behavior v Entrepreneurial Behavior
5. Latest News from America's PremierExperts®

Partnering for Profits

My father once told me, "If you lie down with dogs you'll get up with fleas."

He wasn't lecturing me on my personal habits, but on my pick of friends. He was cautioning me on the need to be careful about whom I associated with, and the problems that can come from poor choices. I thought about this lesson the other day when I heard someone talk about the advantages of forming partnerships in business. Who you pick to do business with as a partner is as important as who you pick for friends. Likewise, your experience can be good or bad, profitable or not, success or disaster.

I believe in partnerships. I've been married to the same wife for 38 years and I've had several multi-year business partnerships. I can also tell you the problems I've had with some business partnerships. One partnership alone cost me over a million dollars, not to mention a lot of time and heartache. While losing large amounts of money is no fun, in many ways it is the personal long term negative baggage you carry after the partnership is over that effects you the most.

So do you avoid partnerships in business?

No you don't.

I think partnerships make life more fun and sharing the ups and downs with someone else certainly has its rewards. If you do partnerships or joint ventures with people who have different but complimentary skill sets to yours, you can also open up new opportunities which would be unavailable to you alone. However, you must be careful who you pick as a partner and you must document the relationship so there is a clear understanding about who is responsible for what and how the profits or losses will be shared. People tell me that doing this in the beginning of a relationship is hard and sometimes causes friction between the prospective partners. That is the precise point. If it is hard to discuss money issues in the beginning of a relationship what kind of friction do you think it will cause when things don't go well?

As the line my father quoted me suggests, you know what's going to happen when you lie down with dogs so if you see a dog, don't think you can change it to something else. It just isn't going to happen in most cases and that's true with prospective partners. Sure there are exceptions, but the risk of the exception is a very poor business risk.

Before you go into business with anyone, find out everything you can about that person.

What are their goals?

What are their values?

Do their beliefs align with yours or are there fundamental differences?

Ask tough questions about what they want to accomplish out of the partnership, what roles they expect each of you to take and what they think everyone should get out of the venture. A key question to explore is their expectations as to how the partnership relates to other work you may be doing on your own or plan to do in the future. Make sure this is specifically defined so that it fits your expectations and there are no misunderstandings. It is very important to write down what everyone is agreeing to now, because memories are always clouded later even if not on purpose as sometimes also happens.

It is very important to observe how your prospective partner treats other people. If they don't treat others well, it's a good indication of what may happen if the going gets rough in your business and we all know, sooner or later a business has complications.

Try to find out how your potential partner has handled past commitments and relationships. I know people differ and that circumstances change so a conflict in the past is not an absolute prediction of the future, but repeated instances of problems in this area are definite indications of a potential problem in the future. A person who historically has had problems in past partnerships will likely have problems in another one unless there has been some fundamental shift in their values. I understand it's good to be open for people to change, but going into business with someone you are not mentally and emotionally aligned with is a formula for conflict and ultimately failure. Make sure you take the time to ask and understand the answers to these questions.

Until Next Month,
JW Dicks

To Your Success,
J.W. Dicks

Featured Member

Bart Queen of SpeakAmerica, www.SpeakAmerica.com

As seen in USA today, Bart founded Speak America based on people's longing to make a difference yet not knowing how. Speak America inspires, develops and helps people realize that difference! Bart, author of "THE 10 KEYS TO REMARKABILITY" shows others how create remarkable lives.

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