Partner-Proofing Your Partnership: Simple Steps for Successful Business Partnerships

The Birth of an eBook

Some years back, a former business partner brought me into a new venture he had launched with his wife. The venture sold products in the oil and gas industry. They had grown the company to a couple million dollars in sales and were looking for someone to help grow their venture. I couldn’t resist the opportunity. Together, we pushed the pedal for the business, and within a year and a half, our annual sales were reaching the $10 million mark.

Everything looked great from a numbers perspective, but things were rocky below the surface, and getting worse.

My partners were constantly arguing about their marriage, the business, anything. Although I did not know it then, they were only a few months from the opening bell of a messy divorce. She felt threatened and vulnerable in the business, likely because she felt vulnerable in their personal relationship.

She did things to attempt to assert her power in the partnership—unfortunately, none of them productive and a few of them decidedly counter-productive. Perhaps in trying to model how to play hardball in negotiations, she took a questionable stance with one of our three key customers, causing them to shift most of their business elsewhere. We never fully repaired that customer relationship.

She then undertook a series of corporate change projects, all falling solidly in the camp of change, not progress. Project after project, she tried to establish her worth in the partnership, while doing exactly the opposite.

When their marital problems reached a crescendo, her actions went from busy projects and the occasional, albeit significant, negative customer interaction, into full-on sabotage.

To make a long story short, it did not take much for one of the three partners to turn south the fortunes of a rapidly growing young company.

The customer, supplier, and personnel bases in our company were not stable enough to withstand the earthquake rocking our venture. We couldn’t endure the seismic waves rippling outward from the boardroom to the rest of the company. As one of our customers said on the way out the door, There are so many companies that can do what you do. Why would we deal with these headaches?

Shortly thereafter, I, too, exited that business venture, carrying with me important lessons about productive business partnerships. That planted the seeds of this eBook.

What You Can Expect from this eBook

No doubt about it, business partnerships are work—work that, in my opinion, is worth it all day long when you find the right partner, but exactly the opposite if you don’t. Many people do not fully appreciate the extent to which a poisonous partnership can be counterproductive. It’s so easy to convince oneself that even though things aren’t great, they are at least working okay. But, oftentimes things are less than okay, and it is simply a matter of time until the venture implodes.

The partnership I just described was hands-down the most frustrating of my career. On the other side of the ledger, I have had many highly productive partnerships — ones that were profitable and enabled me to take ventures to levels I never would have been able to reach alone.

Over the years, I have learned a couple things about making business partnerships work. I can say with assurance that partnerships don’t need to be so difficult.

With knowledge and intention, you can significantly increase your odds of having productive business partnerships.

My successes and failures, as well as my first-hand knowledge gained counseling hundreds of clients over the years, have provided me with a valuable perspective on why partnerships fail and why they succeed.

Success is what this eBook is about. It is about making your business partnerships extraordinary. In this eBook, I focus primarily on the positive side of business partnerships. We’ll look at how to find the right type of partners, how to be the right type of partner, what steps to take before you get things going, and the things you should do during the venture to ensure your partnership functions extremely well. We’ll also look at navigating toxic partnerships because, unfortunately, even great partnerships can go south if not properly handled.

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