Maintaining a Successful Business Partnership

After being in business for a year or more, there are bound to be changes in the marketplace and your business. At this point, you (and your partner) need to ask yourselves “Is what I am doing still making sense?”

Communications with a Partner

Is your partnership relationship still appropriate? Many times people set up partnerships and believe those partnerships will continue forever. What they forget is that partnerships are living entities. They grow, change and die. It is critical to the upkeep of a successful partnership to reevaluate and explore whether the original compensation model is actually still valuable and valid. As a business changes, how everyone gets paid usually requires review and adjustment.

Money Talks

Set up regular meetings between partners to speak about money. Not talking about money can lead to erroneous assumptions, and those assumptions can lead to business failure. The first question to ask is, “Are we making money yet?” I am often astounded to learn how seldom some business partnership entities meet together to review the business financials.

Review and discuss how everyone is getting paid and whether the compensation is fair. Openly talk about how partner each feels about their financial participation and compensation in the business. This is not just about partners, but should apply for everybody in your business. Money matters left to mere assumption will lead you to ruin.

Keep evaluating the compensation model that you’ve agreed on. Is it still valid? Scheduling regular meetings to discuss all aspects of the financials of the partnership will ensure that everyone understands and agrees with the direction the business is taking.