Family, partnership, and small businesses

A business partnership is like a marriage, before you make such a big step you need to do some serious contemplation and review for everything that you are being offered and asked for. Like for a couple, the same values and thought-process are required for the smooth running of marriage. The case with business is the same, your partner must have similar goals, rational minds, and a thought process of keeping it running while making it better.

Partnerships are as delicate as rose petals especially if it is with someone whom you know for a long time. Out of a gazillion business stories, if you count the successful ones, you will hardly find any trace of any partnership, or if you did, at first the number will be astronomically low, and second, those partnerships would be either over a big investment deal or the partners were almost two strangers. Why are the numbers so less? Well, in most of the cases you will see altercations at business places make their way to the quarrels at home and one devious sentence leads to another, destroying either family or business or worse, both. Also, business with a known person doesn’t challenge you much, hence you don’t get honest opinions, which further leads to weak decisions. 

You need to look out for a few necessary characteristics in your partner. The first of them is transparency, he/she must have a see-through and straightforward perspective. Second is the common law of human existence: trust, each of us knows a lot about it and more importantly, the value and cost it comes with. Now one of the most important characteristics, which is also the root cause of why these extremely high numbers of partnered small businesses don’t work: accountability. This is the root characteristic that hinders both relationships and business, you two are in. 

Accountability’s literal definition is the fact or condition of being responsible for something you were appointed with. And the problem with a partner whom you have known for half your life or simply have a deep connection, bond, or relation with, is that their feelings regarding you come in between the important decisions. What a regular partner would do, is hold you accountable for your mistakes, and ask them to correct them. But this would not hold if your mommy and you are doing business together. Neglecting her decisions which are in some way archaic and would not suit the current market, could lead you to a bit of a pickle. On the other hand, she might not agree with your new generation of ideas, being your mother you hardly could argue with her in a hard way, again hindering both the business and the relationship you hold.

This is what makes it tough for families and loved ones into a partnership. But if the other person is strong enough to hold you accountable and you feel the same about them, then it’s a good way to walk on.