Business Partner Decisions

February 1, 2021 By admin Leave a Comment

“I chose the wrong person.”

“We didn’t share the same expectations.”

“It turned out that our ethics were very different.”

Just like marriages, business relationships can break apart for fundamental reasons. Whether you’re in search of new business partners or you’re already hooked up, there are smart things you can do now to strengthen these relationships.

This article contains some important tips on how to protect your business from the risks of business partnerships.

What should I do?

By definition, a business partnership is an agreement to equally or unequally share the ownership, responsibilities, risks, and profits of a business.

The three primary causes of business partner relationship problems are unshared expectations, unshared goals, and poor communication. To eliminate these threats, do the following:

Spend time with prospective business partners in several business settings and social situations so that you can learn about the person’s ethics and values. It’s important to select business partners with ethics and values as close to yours as possible.

Look for people who in their conduct with others exhibit a high level of mutual respect and willingness to listen. If you see behavior that troubles you, consider this an early warning sign that shouldn’t be ignored.

Ask prospective business partners about their vision for the business. Write down the vision statement of each prospective business partner.

In business partners, seek to obtain skills that you don’t have and willingness to perform tasks that you don’t especially like.

Talk with others in the know to find out about the work habits of prospective partners. Watch for signs of laziness or looming personal issues that will take the focus away from your business.

Define clearly the roles and responsibilities of each partner, including the time to be spent by each partner and the respective financial investment by each partner in the business.

Define clearly the work location of each partner.

Address the legal issues of your business partnership, including the liabilities of each partner, with competent legal counsel selected by you.

Make it clear how final decisions are to be made if partners disagree.

Decide who will manage the financial books of the company and who will audit them.

Establish and maintain predictable, regularly scheduled communication with all business partners.

Determine the terms under which a partner may sell or transfer ownership of his or her share of the business to others.

For specific help with your business partner relationships, contact Sylvina Consulting at 503.244.8787.

Jay Leisner, the President of Sylvina Consulting, is a top compensation plan and direct selling expert, a trusted adviser to new and established network marketing and party plan companies. For more than 30 years, Jay has enjoyed assessing and improving party plan and network marketing companies across the globe.

Jay Leisner and Victoria Dohr authored the top-rated book for new and young network marketing and party plan companies, "Start Here: The Guide to Building and Growing Your Direct Selling Company".

Available in English and Spanish. This startup guide contains 250 pages of wisdom that will guide you through the right steps to start and continue on your journey to build a successful direct selling company.

You will save thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of your time using the information you will read in our book.

Sylvina Consulting and Thompson Burton sponsor the pure education "Direct Selling Edge Conference Webinar" for new and young direct selling companies. The wisest direct selling executives never stop being students. They seek out opportunities to learn more. They understand that the long-term success of their companies depends on how much they know, so they make efforts to keep learning.

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In 1986, Jay began his career in direct selling by working for a major direct selling software provider. First as a software developer and later as a project leader and a business analyst, Jay worked closely with new and established network marketing and party direct selling companies to provide them with software solutions to meet their unique requirements.

Jay contributed in many ways to the success of large implementation projects for many companies. Jay also worked with dozens of smaller companies to assist each of them in various capacities to provide them with the systems they needed to help their businesses to grow faster.

Along the way while working with them, he learned the secrets of successful direct selling companies and the challenges faced by them. In true entrepreneurial spirit, Jay’s decision in 1999 to start Sylvina Consulting as a direct selling consulting company was driven by what he saw was a need for answers, advice, and solutions.

In 2004, 2006, 2009, 2014, and 2018, Jay gave presentations on compensation plans, recognition, and field leadership development at conferences held by the US Direct Selling Association.

He traveled to South Africa in 2015, 2016, and 2017 to conduct workshops on compensation plan design and recognition programs for member companies of the South African Direct Selling Association.

In 2017, Jay spoke at the Canadian Direct Sellers Association Meeting on the importance of recognition.

More than just a compensation plan expert, Jay is exceptionally skilled at advising new and established companies on business strategies. Before offering advice or solutions, he asks important questions to understand each client’s specific concerns and goals.

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