Throughout my career, I've watched many business partnerships form — and many of them fail. The pattern I see most often: people jump into business partnerships without doing their due diligence. They spend one or two meetings together and then sign documents committing years of their lives to a person they barely know.
We don't operate that way in our personal lives. In most cultures, relationships involve a lengthy process before major commitments. Why don't we apply the same rigor to business?
Questions I'd Ask Before Any Partnership
Reflecting on my 20-year marriage, here are the kinds of questions I think are essential — both in life and in business:
- Children / Succession: What are your long-term plans? What happens if circumstances change?
- Location: Where do you want to be? How flexible are you?
- Finances: What are your expectations around money, debt, and risk?
- Roles: Who does what? How will decisions get made?
- Values: What do you believe about work ethic, integrity, and how you treat people?
- Vision: Where do you want this to be in 5 years? 10 years?
- Exit: What does success look like, and what does an exit look like for each of you?
The Core Evaluation
Beyond the questions, there are two things I always try to assess before entering any partnership:
Are they a giver or a taker? Pay attention to this in small moments — how they treat waitstaff, how they talk about past partners, whether they give credit or take it.
How do they handle adversity? You can learn more about a person's character in one difficult moment than in a hundred easy ones.
Getting to know your future business partner is similar to getting to know your future spouse. Take the time to do it right.
How do you "date" a potential business partner effectively without investing years upfront? I'd love to hear how you approach it — reach out at tanner@menlocre.com.