My best friend wants to start a training biz w/ me, should I do it?
Today I got a question from a coach called Robert who is in California and he say's..
"Hey Ben I'm thinking about partnering with one of my old college basketball teammates
and I'm thinking about setting up a partnership with him so we can go into our training business together instead of me just doing it by myself. Can you give me some advice?"
My short answer to this question is no it's not a good idea and here's why:
First, you have to ask yourself a couple of questions about what does this person you're partnering with bring to the table that you can't normally.
When two people are starting a business in partnership normally everything is brand new to them both, they might not yet know what they're doing yet. If the person you're partnered with doesn't know what they're doing this can be a liability at the beginning.
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Second, I want you to ask yourself does the person you're partnering with have any skin in the game and what if they don't care as much as you do? When this is the case you will be constantly thinking about what they're doing and on top of that if they are an old teammate of yours the relationship between you both can get very emotional.
If you decide to go into business with someone you're friends with then you must remember that when the business grows there will be more money on the line and what happens is emotions can get in the way especially if you both have a personal friendship together.
When going into partnership with anyone there are a few things to consider:
- What will the percentage split be?
- Which role does each person play within the business?
- Can we make smart business decisions without emotions getting in the way?
A business partnership has to be built by two people bringing different skills to the table. Which means if you are currently in business on your own and you're thinking of partnering up with someone else I want you to think about what skills don't you have and what area in your business you aren't good at?
There are a couple of coaches I've talked to that do have partners but they didn't start their business with their best buddy from high school. Instead, they started their business by themselves and then they started bringing on either other coaches or partners who could do things that they just simply don't want to do anymore and in my head that makes sense.
It makes sense to prove your product before you start to bring anyone else onto with what you do. You must believe in what you do a thousand percent right and to start something with someone who might not have the same mindset as you I promise it's going to be a bigger detriment to your business than you could possibly imagine.
I already know how hard it is to run a business by yourself and running a business with someone else I promise you it's going to be a lot more stressful than you think. If you have any equity percentage that you're giving away right off the bat you know a thousand dollars that comes into the business will now have to be split into two.
Oftentimes I say to coaches it's going to be better to do things by yourself at the beginning and if you do partner with someone they need to be able to do something that you just possibly cannot do or you do not want to do and they have to be world class at that otherwise you should find somebody else to do it.
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Speak to you later,
- Ben