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Starting a Business: Choose the right partner
It is always a better idea to start a venture with a partner, than doing it single handed. But, not so, if you choose the wrong one!
A wrong choice here might prove is fatal. You choose a wrong partner and certainly you are on your way to the doom-land.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- Is he trust worthy?
- Is he valuable to the company?
- Is he as hardworking as you?
- Is he worthy enough(contribute enough) to own a part of your company?
If the answer to all the above questions is “YES“, then you may proceed. If answer is “NO” to any of the above questions, then it is a strict “NO” for making him/her your partner.
If he is bring in money, contacts and other resources which have value to the company and help it grow. You may consider him after a check on his attitude.
It is better to choose someone who compliments your skill set, than someone who is exactly like you, even though we might be choose the latter. Complimentary skill set goes a long way in helping you concentrate more on your core and directly results in the quality of the output.
One of the common mistake we do when choosing a partner is to choose someone who we think will listen to us and assist us rather than someone who is equal or better than us, maybe because of insecurity. Do not do this.
Think twice before you choose your Boy Friend/ Girl Friend as your partner, unless they have a degree from Standford or Harvard.
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If you like this then please subscribe to the Starting a Business: Always have a backup plan
How much ever we plan, things do go wrong, and we get unexpected results. Remember the Murphy’s law - “If anything can go wrong, it will!“?
Having a backup plan helps you to come out of the situation without hurting yourself too much. Backup plan helps you to be up and running before you loose it all.
First of all, we need to avoid getting into these kind of situations. A proper market research will go a long way. I had stressed how crucial research is in one of my previous posts - “Starting a Business: Research before jumping in“.
Even if you did research thoroughly, sometimes things do go wrong due to various uncertainties.
Always keep a check on activities. If things are not working as expected, make adjustments to the plan and try it out, before thinking of making a radical change. Most of the time this should work.
Many a times we face situation where we have to choose between, high risk-high paying or not so high risk-paying. Have tracking points with the minimum return you expect by that time, evaluate yourself and if things are not working as expected by that time, then think over of making adjustments to your initial plan.
One more advantage of having a backup plan is the thought process that goes to create it itself. It prepares you well for the times ahead.
Starting a Business: No to Unwanted Facilities
When money is tight, as the case is, in any startup, you do not want to be spending on unnecessary things. But unfortunately, that is what most of us end up doing.
We tend to get our priorities wrong and spend too much money and time on things like, Big Office space, logo, fancy web template, going for a costly web server, luxury to mention a few. Instead of which, you need to be spending your resources on product development, market research, sales.
Drive your resources on activities/infrastructure which will help your company to go to the next level.
Below is the list of things you can save cash/resources on atleast in the early stage of your startup
- No to costly Logo : Do not spend a zillion dollars and time on choosing your logo, you can always change it when you have resources. An awesome logo with a mediocre product won’t do good in any way
- No to Fancy website design : A simple website will do, don’t spend too much on a web designer.
- No to Big Office space : Even a garage will do for a startup, do not spend on big office space at posh locations. This is totally unnecessary
- No to Hiring accountants/lawyers : Try to outsource your work. Hiring will eat up into your time as well.
- Rent instead of buying : Rent equipment where ever you can. As today’s need might not be of tomorrow’s, spending money on some equipment might turn out to be a total wastage of investment.
Always remember, your product must be your USP, not the website/ office where you sell them.
It is very important to concentrate on product than anything else.