As another year’s St Valentine’s Day has passed by its time for this accountant to reflect on whether being a sole trader is the optimum business model (it’s the most common so there must be something in it) or whether as Marvin & Tammy said “it takes two Baby”?

Being a sole trader has a lot going for it; little need for complex structures or processes, decision making is really easy & allows the business to be fleet of foot. You have the final say on every aspect of the business. You benefit 100% if you get it right.

But are we overlooking the benefits of working alongside someone else while sitting in the business equivalent of a Bachelor/bachelorette pad?

We are hard wired to look for a partner in our personal lives so why not in our business lives?

A partner brings balance, perspective and another set of skills, either complementary ones that nurture the development of the business into new areas, or similar ones to your own, that allow you to increase the capacity of the business, or at least that’s the idea.

In reality we don’t often give much thought to the choice of our business partner as we should, despite the development of the business from one to two being one of the biggest and most fundamental decisions we will ever make.

That may sound overly dramatic but from the day the partnership starts every decision made must be made against the question “Is it the right thing for the business?”, rather than, “Is it the right thing for me?”. As ever, as uptight English folk incapable of expressing our ambitions, fears, hopes and doubts we rarely set out what it is we actually want out of this new partnership and therefore spend the rest of our business lives trying to reconcile some unknown variables without stepping on metaphorical toes.

But it can be so much simpler… As Marvin & Tammy said “one can have a dream baby, two can make that dream so real”.

So let’s get it on….nope that’s another later blog!

It all begins with a chat;

The chat becomes a plan

The plan becomes an agreement

The agreement becomes a series of roles, duties, expectations and commitments, and these in turn become the very DNA of the partnership.

Engaging in this process will help you to gain a clear focus on where you are going and how you are going to get there, giving you a much higher likelihood of reaching your goals.

To get started and to discuss whether a Partnership is the right move for you, call us on 01302 752700 to make an appointment and let us help you.