Strategy Business Consulting
Partnership Planning
Partnerships can be wonderful. They pull together a diverse group of people with different talents and resources and allow them to cooperate to achieve a shared goal. In a partnership, the management team is fully invested in the long-term success of the business, and the partnership can draw on a much broader circle of support and resources than a solo entrepreneur has alone.
Partnerships can be terrible. Infighting. Lack of consensus. Hoarding of information. Lack of a common vision. No communication. Denigrating one another’s contributions. A disaster.
One of the most important things you can do early on in the partnership – preferably even before you begin – is to have detailed and even difficult conversations about the partnership itself.
It is easy to have conversations about the business itself. Everyone is excited by the new ideas and how you are going to sell or perform your particular product or service. But conversations about how the partnership will operate, about its ultimate direction, and about what you will do in certain difficult situations are less fun. In the end, most people just have a lawyer draw up some form of Bylaws, Operating Agreement, or Shareholder Agreement, and the partners sign it.
They don’t understand it.
Worse yet, it does not accurately describe how they are actually going to operate the partnership, which is a ticking time bomb for future misunderstandings, fights, and litigation.
By engaging in rigorous pre-partnership planning, you can put yourselves on the path to a wonderful partnership. I lead your partner group in discussing several important topics, including:
Your long-term goals
Your Competitive Advantage
Mission and Vision Statements
Product and Service Offerings
How you will make decisions
Capital investments, calls, loans, and other people’s money
Partnership duties, metrics, contracts, and nepotism
Growth and expansion
Partners leaving
New partners
Record keeping and access
The partnership communication model
Having me lead the discussion means no one of the partners has to bring up these difficult topics—I will. I’ll keep discussions on track and offer examples from my experience.
What’s it like to work with me?
First, we will have a brief pre-meeting phone call with each partner to discuss the agenda and any items you feel will be particularly contentious or difficult.
You will provide the location and the tools needed (whiteboard, markers, coffee, etc.)
On the day of the event, I will lead the discussion and keep things on track. I recommend you have someone attend who can take good notes, even if you hire a temp. I will also take pictures of the whiteboard, etc., but more notes are best.
This planning is likely to take two days. We usually go somewhere and stay as a team. The evening between sessions, we have cocktails/dinner, where informal talk can be worth its weight in gold. The next day, we finish up at lunchtime or have lunch brought in again and finish in the early afternoon. I find people can’t really go more than that.
I recommend a good note-taker. We can also take pictures of the whiteboards.
We can also do this in a series of sessions, where I meet with each partner separately and then a final meeting or meetings all together.
What will we end up with?
You will end up with a shared vision of your future.
We will create a list of the decisions you have made about your company and its operations. You should supply this list to your attorney, so that your attorney can incorporate these decisions into your governing documents – making those documents actually reflect the way you have chosen to operate and not be just some boilerplate that you don’t understand.
After engaging in this process, you will be ready to operate your partner meetings in accordance with the partnership communication model, and to begin engaging in regular Strategic Planning to keep the momentum going.
Cost:
$5,000
Travel costs paid or reimbursed by you (mileage or airfare, lodging (if 2 days or outside Greenville) and meals eaten together). If you’re outside Greenville, I will normally arrive the afternoon before the event and spend the night in your city to be ready first thing in the morning.