How To Recruit Business Partners

You want to start your own business, but you’re afraid you can’t do it alone. You want the reassurance of having someone with experience and knowledge alongside you to share the workload, help inspire and guide your vision, and solve problems you can’t quite handle on your own. But how do you recruit business partners? And how do you get them to stick around when things get tough? Let’s find out together! First things first, here are some things not to do when trying to recruit business partners…

What Does Your Business Need?

Running a company is difficult and doing it alone can be impossible. Whether you’re looking for full-time employees or just a helping hand, your business will need some help in order to succeed. And what’s true for people is also true for businesses: two heads are better than one. When it comes time to recruit business partners and employees, go with what you know – your network! Your friends, family members, and colleagues might have skills that could benefit your business. In fact, according to Inc., 70 percent of small businesses are started by entrepreneurs who found their first employee through a personal connection. So don’t be afraid to reach out and ask for help! Your network of friends could prove invaluable when it comes time to grow your company.

What Is Your Passion?

Before you begin recruiting for your team, it’s important to consider what sort of people you want as part of your core. Think about whether they’re needed on a full-time basis or if they can work around other jobs. Think about their skills, if you’ll need any specialized help and how much time it might take them to learn what they need in order to contribute. Remember: This isn’t just any team; these are people who will be working with you on your new company! The more carefully you match personalities, skills and experience with roles, not only will your start-up thrive but morale will improve drastically.

How Are You Different from Competitors?

When you approach someone, you’ll want to let them know what you’re good at. Is your company targeting a unique niche that other companies aren’t? Are you doing things differently, or more effectively than your competitors? Be sure to emphasize what makes your company stand out. Partners like working with partners they can rely on—companies that are competent and reliable. Think about how you will demonstrate these qualities. One simple way is by providing an example of one of your successes, so be prepared with proof.

Who Can You Add Value For?

Be very clear about who you can add value for and learn everything you can about them. Figure out what problems they’re trying to solve, why they’re having trouble solving them on their own and what they think their ideal outcome looks like. Don’t give too much advice – let them do a lot of talking so you can really understand their situation. Try asking lots of open-ended questions and following up with specific examples if there’s something confusing or missing in their explanation. When you’re done, summarize your understanding of their problem and ask them to verify it. If they say yes, then tell them how you’d go about solving it. If they say no, go back and clarify until everyone agrees that you’ve got a good understanding of what’s going on here. This process is called active listening because it requires active participation from both sides. It also gives your potential partner an opportunity to show off his expertise while giving him an opportunity to see how well you’ve listened (and learned) from him/her! By doing these things, not only will your partner feel heard, but he/she will be more likely to trust that working with you will be worth his/her time and effort!

Where Do You Find People?

The internet is a great place to find potential partners but be sure you’re considering all options. Let’s say you’re trying to find someone interested in starting an ice cream business. You might start by setting up shop on LinkedIn and posting something like: I’m looking for someone with $200k that wants to open a restaurant. Would love it if they had an existing interest in ice cream or desserts! PM me! This might work, but it isn’t the best way to do things. And you’re probably not going get very many responses! Just because people can see what you’re doing online doesn’t mean they’ll want anything to do with it.

Conclusion

Find a Great Business Partner: The first step in finding a good partner is determining what your strengths are. Then you can look for somebody who complements them. If you’re good at sales and networking, it might make sense to find someone with a technical background who’s capable of building product. If you’re good at building software but not much for selling, find a salesperson with an engineering background who can do all of that hard work for you. Finding potential candidates through referrals or third parties can help keep things civil. And once you’ve narrowed down your list, talk with friends and see if they would recommend any particular partner, since those on-the-ground insights will be tough to come by otherwise.