Ignoring Partners’ Past Track Record.
This key reason is one of the interesting reasons because many-a-times it is a partner with evil intentions to engulf your entire business. So what I suggest you when entering into a partnership with someone, run a deep and thorough scan of their past records because that will tell you how efficient they are. Learn about their methods of producing results in the long-term. Also, check if they have any effective time resources to produce gains for you and whether or not they have any distractions that might hamper the returns. Your business development and profit generated from the venture will be determined by the amount of time, capital, and resources they are prepared to put in.
Another significant way to structure your partnership is by weighing the strengths and distributing work based on skillset, for example, if you’re good at sales and your partner is magnificent with numbers, you will the one to supervise marketing and he will manage the accounts. Categorization of strengths and weaknesses is equally important.
A, B, and C players
You’ll have to understand that things will be different when you partner up with A players, B players, and C players respectively. What’s an A player, B player, and C player? Glad you asked.
Well, I’ve categorized them as follows –
A players
In a partnership, A players are those, who are dedicated to driving the result, they see nothing but progress, they want nothing but gains and they do nothing but hard and smart work. They’re adverse at failing because they always want to win, they can die to win. They are goal-oriented and when partnering with an A player, those are qualities you should be looking for them.
B players
Talking about B players, we understand that they have great sets of skills and their business strategies are successful ones. The only setback to their efficiency is that they don’t bring the equivalent amount of energy to the table and might not bring as successful resources as you bring, but their steady game will help you in the long run’s business development and profit maximization. However, if you’re the A player in the partnership then make sure you have more shares in equities and you must be treated with a little more respect.
C Players
The only problem with C players is that they have problems with every solution and they lack both determination and motivation.
A pro tip – NEVER PARTNER WITH C PLAYERS! OR WORSE, DON’T BE THE C PLAYERS IN ANY PARTNERSHIP!
A partner is someone with whom not only you share the profits of your business but in many ways, they are the ones driving it for you. So if you are confused as to how to determine the right partner, just scan and thoroughly examine their past records. When looking for a great partner i.e. someone with whom you want fruitful results in business and run successful ventures, remember “when the going gets tough only the tough get going.” A-players will handle pressure with utmost calm and they will give their best no matter what. B and C might crack up wide open in extreme pressures.
Another significant indicator is loyalty, however, the problem with loyalty is that people will be loyal but often the situation comes where they’ve to choose and they choose to betray you. Take it from someone who knows – consider the loyalty part pretty seriously. Here are a few signs to ensure whether or not the person is loyal, if they respect their previous partner and were punctual and focused moreover no one got any bad words for them, they’re loyal according to me. Now, this is important because if you plan to partner with A-players, and they left their previous partner in a pathetic condition and left the venture just because you offered them better, it is just a matter of time that they apply the same trick on you. So loyalty is a must if you want to see positive results in your business!
Bad Partnership with Wrong Vendors
Well, a partnership is not limited to direct business partners, it includes vendors as well. Always remember… business is a piece of working machinery which can only work well when it’s all parts work well. A business can only be recognized as quality producing business if it’s all workers including vendors work in a particular quality form. Vendors need to provide raw material in time irrespective of whatever situation or terms you and your vendor face, quality of raw material has to be at a high level, and obviously, they keep your work on high priority with sincerity.
The best way to handle vendors is… keep multiple options for everything and let them compete against each other. Competition works as a filter and put qualified vendors on your partnership list. And above all, choose an experienced, skilled, sincere, honest, and diligent vendor
Bad Partnership with Wrong Clients/Customers
Just like vendors, your team, customers are also equally important. Some of the readers may get surprised by knowing that most successful businesses do choose their customers. Not every customer is welcoming. It is very important to choose the appropriate customer before you attempt to provide your best service and nourish your relationship. It is very important to set down the factors on which you classify the level of goodness of each customer you get. Some of the classification factors could be… the level of understanding, the degree of cooperation, morality, budget (economical span), level of organization in information, work, system, etc., and bonding with your business.
You can give points to each customer on the basis of your deciding factors and that marking will guide you how important a particular customer is, for you. Then you can direct your customer support energy towards the most important customers and hence progress in your business with faster speed.