Finding the best business partner is a key area where logic often plays a minor role.
A business partner can play several roles, from being a company owner to a provider of services and products. In all instances, your business partner should be an asset that brings new perspectives and skills and helps you make better decisions. Therefore, you need to do due diligence before you make the decision to sign a contract with a new business partner. Whether you’re looking for funding or want to establish good business relationships with experts in your domain, you need a business partner that strengthens your company.
However, most companies aren’t what you first think of them. While you might assume you need someone with a series of skills and capabilities, their sales or marketing may make the difference.
Your business partner’s goals and values should align with yours. To ensure you don’t end in the wrong collaboration, here are the key qualities to look for in a business partner.
They should be passionate about what they do
When you’re looking for a business partner to help you improve processes and products or take your firm to the next level, it’s crucial to ensure they’re as passionate about their work as you are. Ideally, you’ll find someone who loves working in the industry. Therefore, you need to look for a company that shares the same vision for your future journey and strives to make steps toward your common long-term goals.
For example, is you want to collaborate with a company that offers high-pressure injection moulding to help you process thermoplastics or provide you with plastic housings for your products, you should ensure it shares the same vision, entrepreneurial spirit, compatibility, and working style as you. A business partner passionate about their job will strive to deliver the best services and keep the public satisfied.
Their interests and skills complement yours
You want a business partner who is supportive in everything you do and is able to fill the gaps in your company’s strengths with their knowledge and experience. However, you also need to determine your different roles in this relationship and divide your tasks for maximum efficiency. For example, you may have little expertise or interest in structural foam moulding, but you need technical moulded parts shaped in a particular form.
Thus, you would benefit hugely from finding a partner that is able to realise your product design by employing sustainable thermoplastic injection moulding methods to use a minimal amount of material and provide you with solutions that enable you to save time and money.
They’re open about their intentions
A good business partner is transparent about their intentions. You already know the saying, “No one can read your mind”. While others cannot tell what’s on your mind, you will find it challenging to guess what your business partner wants. It would help if you collaborated with someone who shares their intentions directly and straightforwardly, so you know what to expect.
Sometimes they’re able to meet your needs and requirements; other times, they might need to adjust them. A business partner should be honest in offering feedback on your ideas. You don’t have time to guess what they say and how they want to act. Your relationship works better if you are direct with each other.
They have a broad knowledge of the industry
It’s recommended to search for a business partner with a firm understanding of your sector. It would be best if you had someone who could deliver the necessary products and services to boost your performance and meet your public’s expectations. Look for people with great references, education, experience, and a unique brand. You want to associate your name with a trustworthy business.
When you connect with a partner that shares the above qualities, you have more time to focus on building your business and improving processes. Also, working with an authority in your industry can enhance your brand awareness.
Negotiation proceeds maturely
When discussing your possible collaboration, healthy disagreements on specific issues and strategies can benefit your partnership because they bring new options and solutions to the table. However, ensure that you can quickly resolve all these issues without holding grudges or someone having an emotional outburst because there’s no room for something like this in business. If you see emotional immaturity during your negotiations, your partnership will be rocky at its best and most likely take plenty of time to manage.
Therefore, it’s best to search for emotional intelligence in a business partner because it’s more important than logical intelligence. You and your collaborators should remember that people (employees, customers, business partners) are individuals with emotions, not machines.
They’re committed
When your business partner doesn’t have a similar level of commitment to reaching your goals, it’s challenging to establish and maintain a strong working relationship. Try to understand the commitment levels of your potential business partner. Also, keep in mind that some business collaborations don’t require all entities to invest an equal amount of energy and time. Your partner might have other commitments that are also important to them.
However, it doesn’t mean they won’t be able to fulfil their part of the job. But it’s paramount to set expectations at the beginning of the collaboration to clarify what your levels of commitment will be, otherwise, you’ll end up upset and fighting with them over who is doing the work.
Trust can make or break a business collaboration, so if you have reservations about working with them, it’ll definitely impact your business decisions. Supposing you have doubts that the partner is as reliable as they want you to believe, you should research their reputation more to find out if you can trust this business with your company and the public. It’s crucial to feel utterly comfortable with the idea that you trust them to provide you with the needed services and products and meet your public’s needs.
And here are the qualities you should look for in a business partner. We hope you find the list useful.
Also read: Be Your Own Boss: How to Do It and Succeed
