The business of family.
For every good thing about a family business, you might find a few bad things about having one.
A business partnership seems to me allot like my concept of marriage. I'm no marriage expert, or even a relationship expert for that matter. I've never been married, one reason for this is because of the failure to success ratio I've witnessed, and the second reason is my fear of commitment. As it turns out, all of my fears for marriage turned out to be completely justified with all of my personal relationship failures. All I'm trying to get across here is that, I do not know allot about the subject of marriage, but I do have knowledge and experience about business partnerships.
This article is about the similarities I believe exist, and nothing more than that. A business to me is interdependent on several individuals, institutions, and all of the relationships that they each have and to me, that sounds a heck of allot like a marriage.
Two people can come into a sort of alignment, or goal. But that does not mean they have the same things motivating them.
-Priorities
Why does someone wish to enter into a partnership?
Some if not all, understand that a company is like a infant child. You cannot create one on your own! Of course you can do it without a contract (marriage) but there is no legally solid foundation, no recognized agreement or protection, no penalty if something goes wrong, and for the world at large, no real recognition of what ever the outcome of this "relationship" brings.
Some spouses just want to be taken care of, they want to provide a small investment, and reap rewards they are not working particularly hard for, but, are taking some risks.
Kind of a "trophy wife" or silent partner. They may bring only themselves to the table and somehow possess some inherent value, some service {ahem) that they offer that seems very attractive. The promise they fulfill first, to receive a long term pay off later.
This type of investor terrifies me, because I know, no matter how charismatic, or how seductive the potential "services" are. They will most likely drop me at the sight of the BBD, or the bigger, better, deal. They want to sit back, do little to nothing, and collect on a long term investment.
Then there's the mister "right now". These types want the short term fling. The only attractive thing about this type is the satisfaction of a perceived need in the immediate tense. This will be the main type to be fast to start, maybe even fun, and then will continually grow in opposite directions until the issues of incompatibility surface. The true motives show themselves, and eventually, just as quickly as it started it abruptly ends. Often times, costing time, attorneys, and stress to the point of losing sight and feel of everything that was good about this partnership to begin with.
Yet another terrifying example. It's do now, think later, primal instinct type of stuff. And while it can be effective in a fast start , (child/company) eventually those issues will surface and not only be evident between the partners, but also the innocent little...company.
And finally, the last type in my crude unscientific fear-induced representation.
True love.
A perfect partnership, two great and compatible communicators. Who want the same things, they trust one another, they know exactly what their roles are, they each have financial stability on their own, and are firm decision makers who ALWAYS have each other's back. They know neither one is perfect and respond with grace and mercy, and fill each other's gaps in knowledge and or discipline. They meet each other's parents first (the bank, and creditors) and then they get married (create a detailed contract). And give birth to the most beautiful 10lb 5oz blue eyed, baby...company.
Truthfully I don't believe that anything is that perfect, but I do think the most successful partnerships bare traits with the most similarity to the last example...true love. They may not always start that perfectly, things may happen before contracts have been signed. Everyone is bound to have disagreements, and one sides mom&pop might not like you, but that doesn't mean you can't work through it.