Family Partnership-good idea or ?
You’ve heard it said; partnerships don’t work. There are many who believe this because they’ve experienced a bad business relationship themselves or heard stories of failed partnerships. I’m here to tell you it’s a myth. There are many successful partnerships, including notables such as Apple: Jobs and Wozniak; Microsoft: Gates and Allen; Google: Sergey Brin and Larry Page; Ben & Jerry’s (Cohen and Greenfield); Hewlett and Packard.
Yes, many partnerships do fail. The “experts” remind us of this often, and you may know a personal account of such a failure. However, they don’t fail because of the nature of partnerships. They fail because of the nature of people. Benjamin Franklin is credited with saying: “if you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail.” The same adage can be applied to partnerships. If you fail to properly vet the relationships and loosely define partner roles, you’ll inevitably meet the fate the naysayers predict.
Successful partnerships work because the partners work. They know how to delineate responsibility and delegate authority. One component of business partnerships that endure is a well-defined decision-making process. Most importantly, once a decision is made, the partners support the decision unconditionally, with no negative consequences if the results are less than expected or desired. The combination of responsibility delineation and a healthy decision-making process are ingredients of all successful partnerships.
Family Partnership Dynamics
The Family Gatherer, is the term I use for an entrepreneur who seeks and involves family partners. When evaluating family partnerships we need to distinguish between live-in family – spouse, significant other, adult children, a parent – from family members living outside the home. The distinction is relevant because of the 24-hour factor. Working and living together creates additional concerns that, at the very least, should be carefully scrutinized (hopefully before partnering). Live-in dynamics are potentially more volatile and can impact relationships if the business fails or the partners decide they can’t work together.
To many of you, it will be obvious that family involvement simply would not work. The most palpable scenario is the one in which you immediately recognize certain conflicts. If, for example, you have difficulty working out things like a budget, vacation plans, holiday and birthday get-togethers, or weekend activities, you needn’t consider family business partnering much further. Resolving business problems will be just as tough or tougher than those situations.
Be analytical and honest, as well, about other (non-partner) family relationships when considering The Family Gatherer role. Are there rivalries or jealousies that might negatively influence a partner’s psyche and, therefore, their contribution? The choices, of course, depend greatly on the personalities and logistical concerns of the people involved. If a relative of your partner lives a thousand miles away, you probably have little concern with their influence. I’m also not suggesting you climb out on all the branches of your family tree looking for potential trouble; just that you examine the closest branches for any potentially negative influence on your business or relationships.
The Good News
Now, before you get discouraged with all this talk of potential landmines, don’t discount The Family Gatherer role completely. Even though we all know every family (well, almost all) has some familial conflict, here’s the good news: a business owned and run by a husband and wife or parent/child with strong family values has a solid chance of success. There are many documented cases of family businesses having been successfully passed on, even through multiple generations.
Strong moral, ethical, and spiritual values promote trust and make problem solving easier. Those values also help temper personal feelings and egos. Assigned responsibilities are more likely to be honored, and difficult business issues are more easily resolved. Those who achieve family business success invariably recognize that personal relationships are more important than winning a business argument.
Being The Family Gatherer isn’t easy. Don’t be fooled into complacency and a false sense of confidence just because you’re working with family. The time to be honest about the risks is before anyone signs anything. The critical distinction for a family partnership is that business problems (even disagreements) won’t likely stay “at the office.” They will impact personal relationships in some form or fashion. Make sure you know how to handle that when it happens.
Bonus: If you want to see one interpretation of how you would fit in The Family Gatherer role, download a fun, easy (and free) Entrepreneur Personality Evaluation