If you follow us on Twitter, you may have seen that I recently asked what people really value in their business partners. What do they have that you don't? I have been thinking a lot about this recently and also counting my blessings that I have a business partner at all.
We belong to a great little Mums in Business network and we are good at sharing our problems and frustrations. However, I often find myself thinking that we don't have many (apart from the time - as in none of it - problem). This is not because we are superspecial, it is simply that there are two of us (whilst many of our fellow M-in-B-ers run things on their own). The collaboration and creation of something together is extemely satisfying as is the opportunity to share our successes. It's all every well trying to enthusiastically tell your husband about your recent victories in the washable nappy market but for some reason (can't think why) he just doesn't seem that interested, or at least able to share in the excitement. But when you've been working with someone, solving problems with someone, backing the other person up, the champagne just tastes so much sweeter.
There's also the 'filling in the grey areas' aspect, without which I don't think I would get any sleep. I absolutely hate the telephone. I think it's possibly because I feel I'm intruding on someone, putting them on the spot, whereas if someone isn't interested in e.g. the NapNap Voucher, they can always just ignore an email. So sometime I get to not telephone as my partner will do it. Phew. And happily we have different skill sets (pleeeease don't make me do the accounting) so we tend to mop up all the tasks without really noticing. We don't really delegate as it is generally pretty obvious who should be doing what.
So, the moral of the tale is, if you are thinking about starting a business, ask yourself whether you can find someone to do it with. It makes for a much more relaxing time (because you aren't responsible for everything) and then there's also someone else to drink champagne with when it all goes right - very important!
We belong to a great little Mums in Business network and we are good at sharing our problems and frustrations. However, I often find myself thinking that we don't have many (apart from the time - as in none of it - problem). This is not because we are superspecial, it is simply that there are two of us (whilst many of our fellow M-in-B-ers run things on their own). The collaboration and creation of something together is extemely satisfying as is the opportunity to share our successes. It's all every well trying to enthusiastically tell your husband about your recent victories in the washable nappy market but for some reason (can't think why) he just doesn't seem that interested, or at least able to share in the excitement. But when you've been working with someone, solving problems with someone, backing the other person up, the champagne just tastes so much sweeter.
There's also the 'filling in the grey areas' aspect, without which I don't think I would get any sleep. I absolutely hate the telephone. I think it's possibly because I feel I'm intruding on someone, putting them on the spot, whereas if someone isn't interested in e.g. the NapNap Voucher, they can always just ignore an email. So sometime I get to not telephone as my partner will do it. Phew. And happily we have different skill sets (pleeeease don't make me do the accounting) so we tend to mop up all the tasks without really noticing. We don't really delegate as it is generally pretty obvious who should be doing what.
So, the moral of the tale is, if you are thinking about starting a business, ask yourself whether you can find someone to do it with. It makes for a much more relaxing time (because you aren't responsible for everything) and then there's also someone else to drink champagne with when it all goes right - very important!
RSS Feed
