Over the weekend, I spent 4 days with my business partner, Emily Osberger to work on our business MUA Launch.
While shopping for some new outfits ?for our Branding shoot on Saturday, the assistant in Sheike asked us what we did and I responded, explaining that Emily was one of my best friends and we had created an online Makeup and Business Academy that's the first of it's kind in Australia.
This kind of conversation happened a lot over the weekend, as people seemed genuinely surprised that we were not only best friends, but also were in business together.
To us, it made complete sense! After all, we know our strengths are each others weaknesses and we know how each other like to be treated, respected and loved.
Tonight, I had a great call with a well known salon owner on the Gold Coast to discuss helping her set up a new venture with herself and one of her staff, which I was able to provide a lot of insight around given, I've done it with my husband, Emily and have plans to do it with another one of my best friends and 2 other close friends.
So in this blog, I'm going to answer the question of what you need to know about choosing a business partner that's right for you.
Secret #1 - Know who you are and your worth ?♀️
The first step to finding a business partner is to feel entirely comfortable and confident in who you are and what you bring to the table.
Where I see a lot of business relationships break down is when one person doesn't fully appreciate or know their worth and the other person exploits it.
Being comfortable and confident in who you are and what you bring to the table will attract someone who is equally as confident in who they are and what they bring to the table.
Which leads me onto Secret #2.
Secret #2 - Find someone who balances you out
When starting any business, you'd have to be pretty arrogant to think that you're going to be good at everything and that you don't need help.
Knowing where your skills and strengths lie isn't admitting that you're weak. It's quite the opposite!
It means you can make a list for the perfect business partner because if they can bring to the table the areas that you're not strong at, TOGETHER, you're a dream team!
People say to my husband and I, don't you guys get sick of each other, working in the business together and being married at the same time?
NO WAY! We have so much FUN together because I don't try or pretend to be better at something that he is better at.
Aaron, Emily and my future business partners are all strong at areas of business that I'm not strong at and vice versa. We understand what motivates each other and how we like to be respected and treated. This has made for some incredible experiences and memories that I'll forever cherish.
Secret #3 - Build up your Emotional Intelligence
Leaving the ego behind and displaying emotional intelligence when it comes to making decisions that are best for the business and your clients, employees and stakeholders is super important.
Learning how to build your emotional intelligence is no easy task. After all, it's responding intelligently to emotions and you've probably been used to responding to in an immediate and default manner (and let's face it, sometimes unintelligent way).
I always like to first analyse why a certain emotion has risen to the surface and in that split second that it arises, ask myself, is this my ego trying to prove that I'm right or trying to keep me safe?
If my ego is trying to prove me right, I'll pause and reflect on whether how I'm about to react is an intelligent way to respond to the situation. What are the pro's and con's of each scenario that could happen? Then, I formulate my response.
It takes practise to build up this muscle of responding intelligently to emotion and I'm no saint! I still respond unintelligently from time to time, but it's getting a lot less frequently since I've been working on it.
Secret #4 - Put a ring on it ?
Lastly, once you've found a business partner who ticks all the boxes, you need to have the conversation with them about expectations and how profit sharing will work.
Once the conversation has been had, bearing in mind that it's not about what you can take from the relationship, but rather, what you can grow together, then it's time to put it into a legal document so there are never any arguments or misunderstandings.
If you follow these steps, you'll be in business together for a long time and you will have a HUGE impact on the world.
I hope this blog was helpful, if it was, forward it onto your friends who need to hear this and tell them to subscribe to our mailing list for more value bombs.
Have a beautiful week and crush it in your business.
Jade xx
