So you are considering starting a business with a partner or partners. If you’re doing so keep in mind some absolute truths. Most business partnerships end in a break up by a factor of 8 to 1. I know you’ve got the perfect formula – I’ve heard it before but… heed these words of advice. You must be willing to suffer the loss of your relationship if the business partnership ends.
Is your partner a friend or relative? If he or she is close to you, keep in mind the importance of this relationship. If you are going to have a partner, here is the best way to reduce compromising your relationship. Yes, even if they are your best friend or family member. Define to the finest detail your roles and responsibilities, all of your expectations and then have them reviewed by a non-biased third party (NOT YOUR MOM) and be sure the reviewer has a business background. Next, define exactly how all the income is going to be divided up – to the penny. Third, have clauses defining exactly how you may buy each other out for and how much in what type of payment if one party decides to leave. Don’t ever let the other party walk without a financial payoff — even if it is small. They will forever feel you jipped them and you’ll have an awkward five hundred pound gorilla between you forever. Finally, sign a document agreeing to these roles, responsibilities and financial issues. Consider this a pre-nup and be sure to understand the reason you’re doing this. You want to remain friends first and foremost because all the money in the world won’t buy you that relationship again. So, plan it out and make sure you are both on the same page with the same interest in starting a business. Don’t believe for a moment that you can separate business from your relationship — it’s a lie.
Have you “really” addressed the stuff that has been on your mind but is hard to talk about? Cover these things now before you go into a partnership and put plans in place that force a positive outcome fueled by your ability to recognize both of your shortcomings. Know your own personal limits and those of your partners. Most of the limits and problems in a business are fueled by personal “stuff”. It’s not that the personal stuff is all bad. Maybe you or your partner to be is married to a jealous spouse that will certainly have a problem with you starting a nationwide trucking service gone on the road 6 nights a week. Maybe your Mom lives nearby and requires your daily attention of which would certainly come to a screaming halt if you open that sign shop. Let’s face it, people are more important than money. If you don’t think so, ask the lonely and bitter millionaire. You will have to adjust your business model to suit both your lifestyles and personalities. This is the stuff, the personality “face the music” stuff that if addressed up front, during the planning stages, will reduce the likelihood of breakdowns and break ups of your new company.
By: Dan Nichols
Posts Tagged ‘Business Relationship’
Business Partnerships – Doing It Right
March 25th, 2010Business Tips – Customer Relationship Management
January 27th, 2010
Customer relationship management (CRM) includes the proficiencies, technologies, and methodologies that sustain a business in managing fine rapport with its customers.
The basic principle of CRM is to facilitate organizations to manage their customers by the introduction of consistent systems and procedures.
Customer relationship management is a standardized business strategy that spotlights on development and maintenance of eternal relationships with customers.
Customer Relationship Management, in its widest sense, signifies managing all interactions and business with customers, which entails enhancing customer service in an infinite manner.
High quality CRM program facilitates a business to attain customers, cater their requirement, retain good customers, boost the value of business, and determine which customers ought to be preserved or bestowed with a top level of service.
Other Benefits:
A good CRM program boosts customer service by assisting communication in many ways:
• It offers product details, product usage information, and other technical assistance on websites that are accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• It determines how every single customer classifies the product quality, after which, it designs a service plan for every customer based on these individual requisites and anticipations.
• It proffers a rapid mechanism to manage and plan follow-up sales calls to evaluate post purchase perceptive disagreement, repurchasing possibilities and repurchase frequencies.
• A good customer relationship management also offers a mechanism to spot all points in contact between a customer and the business firm. CRM executes it in a combined way to include entire source and all sorts of contact, which facilitate all the users to witness the same view of the customer.
• It assists to recognize any potential difficulties rapidly, prior to their entrance in the business.
• It offers a user friendly mechanism, to register customer complaints that are a prime source of customer disappointment.
• One key function of CRM program is that, it gathers details about potential customers. The program collects these information considering the customer’s privacy and data security.
• It also offers a rapid mechanism to operate difficulties and complaints to resolve them swiftly, so as to boost customer satisfaction.
• An excellent CRM program also provides a swift mechanism to correct service insufficiencies, prior to its encounter with the customers.
• It firmly utilizes Internet cookies to spot customer’s interests and consequently, customizes product assistance.
• It also uses the Internet to connect, with mutual personalization or synchronized customization.
• It possesses a swift mechanism to operate and plan maintenance, renovations, and current support to boost both effectiveness or efficacy.
• A good CRM program, when incorporated with other cross functional systems blends to offer accounting and production details to customers whenever they desire.
Success:
Experience from several businesses proves that an apparent CRM condition in consideration to reports is of great importance, prior to initiating any CRM program execution.
With an accurate demand specification, a business may save huge deal of money and time, based on sensible anticipations of system potential. A good CRM system is a tremendous tool for management and customer strategies.
By: Jon Elton
In Business With Your Spouse
January 12th, 2010
Are you and your spouse planning to go into business together? While it would make perfect sense to some couples, it could be a path fraught with pitfalls for many others. Here, we’ve put together a list of five strategies for forming an effective partnership with your spouse:
1. You need to talk: The key to a successful marriage lies in communication. The same holds true for a business relationship. Develop an effective way to sort out differences and resolve disputes. Do not let issues fester and develop into a serious problem, especially since there is a risk of that spilling into your personal lives. While at work, leave your family problems back home and when you go back home, do exactly the opposite. This is the only strategy that can help you weather the difficult times both at work and home.
2. Split the roles: It is very important to chalk out what each of you is going to do. Divide your roles and responsibilities. Chart out an activity plan for the work day that keeps you from stepping on each other’s toes. Typically, in small businesses, one partner handles customer-centric activities, such as sales and business development or preparing proposals and job estimates. The other partner takes care of the day-to-day operations including bookkeeping, payroll management and general office administration. Major decisions such as investing money into a new project, hiring key employees or resorting to new sources of financing should be taken together.
3. Carve out your niches: Right at the start, identify the skills each of you bring to the business and take it from there. With individual domains to manage, chances of conflict are lower, and you’ll have some experiences to share at the end of the day.
4. Give each other room: It is necessary for each of you to have your own space to work in. Having separate offices is ideal, but might not be feasible if yours is a home based business. Even then, you must create separate work spaces.
5. Look ahead: While it’s hard to think about the company’s future (or closure!) before you’ve even launched it, it’s important to sit down with your spouse and decide where you want the business to be, say five years down the line. And you would be better off agreeing on how to part ways as business partners if things don’t work out as planned.
Working with your spouse isn’t impossible, and can work for the right people. If you and your spouse share a common vision on the goals for your business, it shouldn’t be difficult to start one together and build a solid foundation for greater things.
By: Akhil Shahani
