How to Build Solid
Business Partnerships and Alliances
There can be disastrous results when
care is not taken to build a solid foundation under which a new Business
Partnership or Alliance can safely develop strength and stability. This
Top Ten list offers some basic steps to consider when moving forward
into a Business Partnership and Alliance, that can decrease the chances
for negative results, and can increase the chance for a Successful
Partnership to be established.
1. After choosing one
another as potential partners, establish mutual ideas, goals, and
philosophies operating in the team you are developing.
Look for enough compatibility to
challenge and stimulate one another over time, as well as the presence
of mutual trust.
2. Choose a partner whose
strengths complement the limits of the other partner, and vise versa.
3. Establish the project
or core focus of the partnership that is being created.
4. Determine the kind of
Partnership that will be created.
Will it be Equal, or possibly an
Associate relationship, or any other possible combinations in between?
Factors such as determining level of financial risk, availability of
time and energy for the project, and prior existence of any intellectual
property tied to the project are some key items to consider. Hiring a
Coach that has expertise in this area is recommended during the
formative stages of the partnership, and at any time such support is
needed in the future, in order to protect the best interests for each
partner involved.
5. Develop a sound
financial compensation plan for profits received that both partners agree
to in a signed document or contract.
Legal representation for the
partnership may be appropriate at this juncture.
6. Determine what roles
each partner will play during the course of the project, defined and
clearly documented for future reference.
Be accountable to your role, until both
partners change the structure of roles established.
7. Create and suppport
the intent to continually place a working plan into action, review the
results of the action taken,and making expedient and necessary shifts that
will support the health of the partnership over the lifespan of the
alliance.
8. If possible get the
support of your immediate support system established before entering into
partnership.
You will need to educate them about
expenditures of time, money, energy and other resources that will be
needed to successfully launch the project(s) your partnership
represents.
9. Have planned,
regularly schedule meetings on a weekly basis.
These meetings will be set up for the
purpose of discussing the wins and challenges, what's working and what's
not, areas of discord and mutual planning for future growth and
expansion.
10. Set a minimum time
period that both partners will agree to a "no exit" clause.
New ventures take time to be planted,
watered and nourished, weeded and ultimately harvested.
Food For Thought
The biggest obstacle standing between
you and anything you want, is your lack of belief that you can have
it. Once you truly believe it is possible, once you can see yourself
doing it or being it or having it, the rest is just details. With
belief, plus the commitment to follow through and do whatever it
takes, anything can be yours.
Everything you need to get there is available to you, when you believe
and when you commit to getting there. Know that you can do it. Nothing
can hold you back once you have belief and commitment. You will find a
way. You can. Do it.
Pleasure is a matter of conditioning. A teenager
smoking her first cigarette doesn't enjoy it at all. She's almost
certainly doing it to "fit in" and it probably even makes her a little
sick. After a while, though, she likes it so much she finds it hard to
quit.
Strategy for achieving your success: Choose the pleasures that move
you toward your goals.
For example, there is just as much potential for pleasure in jogging 2
miles as there is in eating a bag of potato chips. The person who is
trying to get in top physical shape would be well advised to find his
pleasure in the jogging rather than the chips. Just like everything
else in your world, your pleasures are under your control. Use them to
your advantage.
What is it that you truly want to do? You can do it. Realize that you
are as capable as any person. See yourself doing it. Touch it. Hear
it. Taste it. Walk inside of it. Drive around in it. Believe in it and
believe that it is yours. |
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