In my piece titled “Six Questions to Ask before Going for A Business Partnership”, I tried to share with you some of the very important questions you need to answer before taking the step into a business partnership. 

Here I am assuming that you have taken time to go through that article and are at the verge of making a decision to go for a partnership or not. I just think that it is necessary you know the positives and negatives of business partnerships so that whatever you finally decide to do, you will be making a well informed decision.
 

Most often, business partnerships end up a failure, making it seem like there is nothing to gain in them. While I think that there are more reasons to abstain from business partnerships, I also know that a well-established business partnership with the right person will always be a serious boost to any business. 

There will be added strength to the business and this will lead to greater success. Many of the successful business men and women the world has today have enjoyed success from one form of partnership or the other. You could also enjoy it if you take time to do it well.
 
No matter how wonderful a business partnership is, there will always be pros and cons. The following are the pros and cons that are likely to be seen in any business partnerships:
 

PROS (POSITIVES)

Business partnerships could bring the following advantages to any business: 

1.    Additional Mental and Physical Energy

A business partnership will certainly bring in more mental and physical energy since the number of heads and hands will increase. This means that there is likely to be more and even better ideas, brought into the business and more persons to handle responsibilities. This is a serious plus to any business.
 

2.    Shared Business Risk

People are often afraid to bear the risks involved in business, alone. A business partnership is one way of reducing the burden of business risk on a single person, through sharing. When risks are shared, people are more at ease and willing to go into business since they know that in any case of failure, they won’t be bearing the loss all alone.
 

3.    Shared Responsibilities

A business partner comes into a business and bears some of the responsibilities originally borne by one person. Thus, the work becomes lighter on each person and there is greater tendency for higher work efficiency. If the right partners come together, the tendency to see them complimenting each other becomes higher. So each person can carry out different tasks and responsibilities based on their different areas of competences. This will make the work really less stressful on each of the partners.
 

4.    More Clients and Customers

Each partner comes into the business with personal connections and this will certainly increase the client/customer strength of the business. This could also be a serious boost to the business and affect the business profit.
 

5.    More Resources

This is one of the most important aspects that make a business partnership worthwhile. When two persons come together, there is great increase in resources since each person makes contributions to the business. Resources here could be in terms of finance, skills, personality strengths, experience, knowledge, time input, and so on. These are the things that will most significantly impact on the business and yield greater success.
 

6.    More Commitment

Each time people get into partnership, there is a renewed degree of commitment that is seen in each partner. Hopes are raised, more ideas are brought to the table, more resources are put together, expectations grow and so commitment is bound to change. This is more so as initially no one will want to be the first to betray the partnership.
 

7.    Greater Sense of Accountability

When there is more than one person in a business, each person knows that he has someone else to account to, for his actions. This imparts on the level of performance which in turn impacts on the business success.
 

8.    Greater Sense of Security
 

Having a partner makes one more secured in business. First of all, you are sure someone always has your back. You may sometimes be taken aback by uncontrollable situations that keep you away or inactive for a while and this could hamper on the business. However, there is security when there is someone as competent as you, who fills the gaps and keeps the business going.
 

CONS (NEGATIVES)

Business partnerships may present with the following to deal with.
 

1.    Shared Profits

It is normal that in any partnership, partners will have a percentage of the profits to part with. The more the partners, the lesser the amount each person has to part with. However, one way to handle this is to ensure that each person’s impact brings in a huge increase in the profit such that when shared, each person goes with more than what he would have gotten if he was alone in the business.
 

2.    Shared Failures

In business partnerships, everyone share in the failures even if it was caused just by one person. So it is not enough to play your role well, but also to ensure that the other partner does the same. This is even more critical for the one who contributes more into the business, since failure will lead to a greater loss for him.  

Some partners have disappeared from the scene unceremoniously and left others gnashing their teeth and grappling with the problems they left behind. I know of cases where a partner steals a huge sum of the business’ capital and no one can trace his destination. You can guess what happened after that.
 

3.    Shared Decision-Making Power
 

When you get into partnership, one of the first things you will notice is that you won’t always have things your way. No matter how wonderful your opinion may seem to you, it will need to be accepted by the other partner before it is implemented. You will always have to justify your ideas with concrete reasons so as to convince your partner to see with you why they are good to be followed. 

Unlike before when you could think of something at night, get up in the morning, call your secretary and ask that it be implemented, now you will have to sit down in small meetings with your partner always, to share your thoughts on issues. Even if your partner is flexible and dynamic, you will still need to share your ideas before you implement them so that both of you can take responsibility for the outcome, good or bad.
 

4.    Legal Matters

This is the most significant problem with partnerships, Very often even partners that were friends before the partnership end up in setting their disputes in a law court. After that, both the partnership and friendship are destroyed. 

The biggest problem with this is that when it happens, the business is affected as one person could legally be entitled to a good share of the business capital or could part away with a heavy proportion of the business’ customers. Some of these problems could cost the business huge sums of money that is capable of ruining it.
 
Also, vital information about the business could easily leak out. Another thing that is at stake is the image of the business, which could be tarnished by the unsatisfied leaving partner. 

All these are serious and will have a serious consequence on the life of the business. In fact, I have hardly seen a business partnership where after settling the disputes, each partner parted peacefully and flourished on his own, better than before the partnership. 

 
While the cons of business partnerships may be fewer than the pros, their effects could cost the entire business, its existence. So, it is very important to consider them seriously, even as you hold high expectations from your business partnership.
 
I hope with these, you can be more secured in making a decision on partnership. 

Please make your comments below
 
by Kadzem Claude