Is One the Loneliest Number? Should You Start a Business with Partner?
April 1st, 2010 | Small Business | No Comments »You have a great idea, some money in the bank and a little extra time. So do you go it alone and launch a business? Or, instead, do you find partners to help you make your idea a reality?
It’s a common dilemma. The upside about going alone seems to be having absolute control over the product direction. No need to reach agreement on how to approach the market, pricing or even the name itself. For example, with KikScore, we have several meetings each week to make sure we’re all on the same page and updated on development and partner development. If this were a sole enterprise, that time could be saved (or at least redirected).
But being alone isn’t all sunshine and flowers (or whatever else you may find appealing). With sole control comes sole responsibility. If there is an issue with your business or customer service, you need to solve it. If you are great at product design but not sales, well, too bad. And forget brainstorming, you’re the brain and the storm. There’s a good summary of the pros and cons in this blog post.
How about the number of partners? Does it get more or less complicated to run your business if the number of partners increases? I don’t have any hard studies on this, but anecdotal information (i.e. KikScore’s experience growing from 4 to 7 partners) has not been too impactful. I think the most important thing with partners is to have an odd number….that way you don’t have stalemates on important votes.
Do you have any business partners? Or are you going it alone?
