Partnerships: The True Deal

The Wrong Approach to Business

There are some people who will not be happy with a deal unless they have beaten the other party down to a pulp.  This is an approach to business that is inefficient and mean.  Often this type of approach to business ends up backfiring.

The reason why is simple.  Consider the following.  Let’s just say that you are building a new driveway to your house.  You ask contractors for bids and you choose the lowest bidder.  You barter him down on the price.  Because he needs the work he agrees to build your driveway for what it would cost him.

At this point you are feeling pretty good.

You fail to be aware that in building a driveway you sometimes have to make changes.  You make the changes and each time you do the contractor sticks it to you. 

By the time the driveway is completed the contractor would have gotten his profit.  In fact it ends up costing more than it would have if you had just allowed the contractor to have a profit in the first place.  Not only would you have paid more but you have now made a new enemy.

A Reasonable Approach to Business

It can be learned, sometimes the hard way, that the cheapest deal is not always the best deal.  Instead of focusing on securing the cheapest deal consider looking for the following things.  Look for someone who is a good match.  Someone that will bring something useful to the table.  Also look for someone that has a personality that will mesh well with yours.  Make sure it is someone that you will enjoy working with.  Finally, make sure that it is a good deal.  Make sure that it is a deal that would be profitable for both you and the contractor.

The Win-Win Approach to Business

The win-win approach to business is by far the best approach to a business partnership.  It is an approach to business that benefits both parties.

Usually, the reason why someone enters into a business partnership is to benefit financially.  It defeats the purpose of one side of the partnership if all of the benefits of the partnership falls on the other side.  Usually when this happens the side that is getting the short end of the stick does not perform nearly as well as they would if they were getting a fair share of the pie.  Bad feelings are also harbored when one side of the partnership gets a short end of the stick.  The project does not turn out nearly as well.

If you want to have a project that has good results consider a win-win approach to business.  This way both parties benefit, both parties are more likely to give 100% effort to the project and chances are you will make friends with the other party instead of enemies.

Conclusion

Whenever you consider going into business with someone, whether it be a contractor to build for you or a partner in some other venture, always consider the other person.  Consider how you would feel if the same conditions that you present were presented to you.  Always reach for win-win terms and stand by them.  You will always have a much happier project if all parties walk away with something they are pleased with.

If you learned anything new from this post then please leave a comment.