You know the old saying, about how you never stop learning. Well, that has never been more true!
I learned some massive lessons both for my business and for myself over the last few months. In particular I learned how NOT to run a JV partnership (that’s joint venture – aka you partner with someone else for mutual benefit), and I wanted to share them with you lovely readers, so maybe others might avoid making the same mistakes I did, and something positive can come from the whole mess.
So what happened? Well I won’t go into any incriminating details, despite me having spent the last few days day dreaming about roundhouse kicking this person in the head Chuck Norris stylee… repeatedly, I don’t think it’s fair to name and shame, so let’s just say I agreed to what I thought was a pretty simple joint affiliate promotion agreement (equal work and equal profits), and it went (very) awry!
You see the initial agreement was only verbal (*slaps head*), and only very, very simplistic. And sadly some wires somehow became crossed, tempers were lost (multiple times), threats were made, sleep was lost, grey hairs were grown, and I ended up being bullied-slash-crazied into walking away at a significant loss because that was actually better than having to work with my “partner” for a single second longer.
All this heartache simply because I was naive.
So what would I do differently next time (apart from run screaming in the other direction), well I would start with these…
Lesson 1 – Don’t be impulsive
For me, the idea of the partnership came out of the blue, and it seemed like one of those “there’s no harm in trying” types of thing (it was pretty low cost and seemingly low risk to both parties, and we only had a certain window to do it in), so I agreed on the spot.
In the future I am going to give myself a mandatory 48 hour mulling-over period, and I am also going to seek out references for how a person is to actually work with (apparently a quick email to a few other blogging friends would have alerted me to this particular person’s less than positive reputation for doing these kinds of things!). It’s amazing how different people can be and act once they get dollar signs in their eyes, and this was not something I even considered.
I am also going to be sure to ask myself the following questions;
1 – Do I want to align my brand with this person/brand?
2 – What (other than anything financial) do I get out of this agreement/partnership?
3 – What are the worst case scenarios for this arrangement, and how can I safeguard against them (more on this in point two)?
4 – Would you want to be locked in an elevator for 24-hours with this person? (Business dealings can, sadly, bring out the worst in people, but you still have to be able to get along, so I almost think this is the most important question you need to answer. And if you don’t know enough about the person, then maybe just say ‘No’ to be safe!)
Lesson 2 – Get everything in writing, including how to deal with worst case scenarios
As I stupidly just said “yeah, why not” thinking the whole thing was pretty damn straight forward, it didn’t even occur to me to A) get even that simple agreement in writing (I mean who screws over a business partner these days really?), or B) put in clauses for the “what if this all cocks up” scenarios into our agreement.
The what ifs I should have included are; what if one person feels the other is not pulling their weight, what if there is a conflict of personalities so bad you cannot continue to work with each other, what if one person decides they don’t want to do the partnership mid-way through, what if someone gets an ingrown toenail. etc.. etc… It doesn’t matter how trivial, or apparently unlikely you might feel a particular situation is. You still need to lock it down.
We also didn’t discuss exactly what each party was expected to do, when, and how often, or even what expenses would or would not be covered jointly (I am a moron, I know, I know!).
It was just assumed that we were both fair and reasonable people, so everything would be figured out as we went along in a fair and reasonable way. But it turns out there was such an amazing disparity (I still can’t believe it actually) between what we both saw as “fair” that it is almost laughable. So, not to sound like a broken record, but get all the shit in writing!
Seriously, you need to have every single “what if” option all nutted out (in as minute detail as you can) first, and agreed on. Signed in blood if you need it to be. That way there can be no misunderstandings, and even if it does turn out that the person you chose to partner with has all the morals of a politician and the common sense of a toddler, it doesn’t matter. Because you have it all pre-agreed on and in legally binding writing.
Lesson 3 – Sometimes you have to eat your pride to be happy
This was probably the hardest lesson for me. I mean the rest is just common sense (and I am still kicking myself at how trusting I was going in to this whole thing). But the way this partnership ended up, I actually should have (and almost did) pursue legal action (to be honest I still might), as the other party irrationally down-right refused to honor our agreement in any shape or form, leaving me with two choices 1 ) accept a lot less money than I was owed and walk away, or 2) spend the next 2-3 months fighting it out with all the stress and negative energy that goes along with it.
But to be honest, to have gone down that path would have just been about “being right” and my desire to not let a bully win, and it would actually have just drawn out what was already a pretty horrible (and long) part of my life even further. And who needs that, right?
So I decided to cut my losses and run (as fast as I could), and I will just have to work out my anger about the injustice of it all on my yoga mat (and here, through my words. Writing is my therapy!). And I can only hope karma (and hopefully also Chuck Norris) takes care of the rest.
Image via dollarphotoclub.com
