2 Important Things I Want in a Business Partner

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What is important to find when you're looking for a business partner?

There are lots of things, and entire books have been written about them.

What does a business partner need?  There are a couple of things, but it begins with a good idea.

However, as I am thinking through my past experiences, here are two (2) basic things that are important to me.



1. You need to offer something that I need or want.

This one is direct, but here are the basic examples of meeting my real or perceived need:
A. Make something easier for me.
B. Do something I cannot do.
C. Do something I do not WANT to do.
D. Do something more efficiently than I can do.
E. Bring a good idea to me that you aren't sure how to implement.
F. Increase my value more than you increase my cost. (Hopefully by a lot!)
G. Have contacts that I want (or need) but do not have.
H. You enjoy handling certain types of people (clients or prospects) more than I do.

Essentially, I want you to...
(i) make me money,
(ii) save me time,
(iii) make things less stressful for me,
(iv) bring me opportunities that are a good match for me,
(v) do things I do not have time to do (but wish I could), or
(vi) do things that need to get done but I don't want to do.

PET PEEVE: Some people want to become my business partner without offering anything in value for me.  I'm not sure that I know how to make that work.  More to the point...I'm pretty sure that I DO NOT WANT to make that work.  Would you?


2. You let me focus on offense--not defense.

This one is really important to me!

I'm not trying to imply that I want to ignore obvious risks.

In each partnership, I want to find a way that you are going to benefit.  I take tremendous pride that I never intend to give anyone a bad deal.  If I cannot find a way to make it work for you, I'm not interested.  A win for me at your ultimate expense will not inspire you to work well for me in the long term.

Return the favor!

When I partner with someone, I want to put my energy toward figuring how to grow.  I don't want to spend it trying to worry about whether I need to negotiate with you every step of the way.  Discussions are great, but don't try to squeeze every penny you can from me.  Trust me!  I'm definitely not doing that to you, because it's bad business.  Don't do that to me; I won't stay long.

Let us focus on GROWING our business (offense), not screwing each other (defense).

If you cannot do this, you are not what I want in a business partner.

If you can legitimately address these two (2) basic things and want to do them with me, you might want take the first steps to learn more and visit http://www.theultimateanalyst.com/p/business-partnership-program.html.  I would be delighted to hear your idea.

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