And Reasons Why Partnerships Fail

My friend and I wanted to develop our talents into part-time work from home. We wanted more than activity on the side for pleasure — we wanted extra income. We partnered together and launched a side hustle selling wreaths to the local community. We were successful!

How do you make a partnership with a friend successful? This is what worked for me:

The First Ingredient is a “Really Good Idea”

My neighbor had a secret talent. She made astonishingly beautiful floral wreaths out of succulents. “You should sell them,” her husband advised her. She sold out in a few hours at the local fair! There were big out-of-pocket expenses, so she enlisted my bookkeeping services to itemize her deductions and write-offs to lower her taxes. In return, I got a free wreath. One day, we abandoned the barter system and decided to work together. She had creative talent. I had business skills.

Create a Different Spin on an Existing Concept

Our business adventures would not have been possible without a really good idea. My friend had a unique spin on traditional floral wreaths. She wired cuttings from succulent plants to a wire frame. At the time, succulent plants were unusual and hard to find. Her succulent wreaths were long-lasting, modern, and sculptural. She added bows to coordinate with gift-giving seasons: Fall and Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and Mother’s day. The product was sustainable, too. The plants sprouted tiny roots and could be planted into a garden if you lived in a desert climate.

Identify the Niche Market

Our business catered to two audiences; people seeking unique gifts and those who were garden aficionados. Our focus was local — we serviced cities close to our suburb in Los Angeles. There was no competition. The closest concept used plants, and dirt wrapped in sphagnum moss or landscaping material. Those wreaths were too heavy to hang and messy to water.

Your Partner should have Communication Skills

Communication is an important business skill. Make sure your partner can talk to others and be informative, engaging, and comfortable. When your partner is distant, defensive, too technical, or unwilling to promote products, the sales and marketing drive will become a burden. Do not be the only one excited about promotional events!

You should not beg your partner to show up in booths, visit vendors, suppliers, and customers or participate in workshops — find a personable business associate. Excitement should be shared. You should be able to substitute for one another and be the biggest fan of your product.

Promote Together.

Creative people love to create. They have passion for their product and process. Strangely, creators are often not as excited when reaching out to the community at large. Creative artists (and talented engineers) get so excited about a concept they think it will sell itself! Good products do not speak for themselves. Good ideas do not sell themselves. We must spend energy sharing enthusiasm. A good partner will share the responsibility of promoting ideas. The intersection of your joint workload together is in the promotion of the idea.

Sharing news does not come naturally to everyone, especially the same thing over and over. Promotion feels like an insurmountable sales and business problem. Do not be the only person willing to promote, especially if you are two people in the business.

Championing the progress, growth, or acceptance of a product must be shared by both partners because it is stressful. Promotional work is infrastructure set-up. Ad campaign technology. Setting up booths. Checking inventory for future events. Ordering, returning, and dropping off samples. Visiting or talking to vendors. Travel, parking, and presenting. It is inconvenient, hard physically and it can be uncomfortable mentally.

Communicating and sharing energies about promotional responsibilities will ease the workload. It also expands the knowledge base about vendors, suppliers, and customers. Rather than thinking of promotion as a separate topic under a marketing or sales role, think about promotion in terms of a joint venture — sharing the news!

Discuss and Appreciate Distinct Roles

My partner was the creative talent, she was responsible for producing the products. Each wreath was an artisanal endeavor that took hours out of her day. She had to schedule her time and assess ways to increase productivity. She researched deals on supplies and was concerned about product quality and control. She made physical space for a fabrication area and supplies. She propagated and grew many of her plants. As a creative person, she was the main contributor to the design of the booth, flyers, and photos.

Creative Responsibilities include:

• Production Schedule: Quantity of products by delivery date.
• Supplies: Understand vendors and supplies, and review for cost improvements.
• Fabrication space: Good location to make products and easy accessibility for inventory and storage.
• Creative input on marketing materials and promotional activities.

On the other side, I handled the bookkeeping, customer and prospect database, and communication and marketing technology. I enjoyed contacting people, collecting payments, recording information, and thinking of new ways to reach out. I was not involved in fabrication except as a substitute during vacations or sickness. I picked up supplies and did deliveries. I helped cut and wash the cuttings and did the set-up for events. I was the biggest fan and promoted the creator as the expert she was, extolling her creative talents as the “special sauce” for the business venture.

Business Responsibilities include:

• Bookkeeping: Transactions recorded for revenue, expenses, contractors, marketing, and vendors.
• Substitute for creative talent during unexpected events and vacations. The partner must be able to produce the product or deliver spare inventory.
• Customer Database: Collects names and addresses for future marketing.
• Marketing, Social Media, email. Figure out the best method for your niche. It will take time to grow a list of interested parties. Announce events at least three times.

The Business will Transform into a Separate Entity

Whatever the “really good idea” is — making cookies, handbags, doing chair upholstery, landscape design, or bookkeeping…your customer base will grow. Most business innovations will be in response to customer requests.

The business focus will shift over time. Here are a few areas and adjustments:

Price range. Try to have a price for different pocketbooks. Our wreaths were expensive. We had three price points for each size, small, medium, and large.

Product Range. Eventually, we offered cuttings and plants. The kids would be busy in the booth while mothers were shopping. We offered smaller, more portable floral arrangements.

Delivery. A surprising amount of people have transportation or mobility problems. Offer to deliver, or ship the product and you will get a boost in sales.

Charities. Donate your item or services to local school events, end-of-year sports and theatre events, as well as fundraising charities to showcase the product and create word-of-mouth awareness. Our bouquets were popular as door prizes, table centerpieces, take-home gifts, and silent auctions.

Seasonal Events. Seasonal events can be a built-in formula for marketing dates. Plan ahead for announcements, supplies, set-up, orders, and deliveries. Figure out marketing using postcards, Facebook groups, and email lists.

Workshops Some business owners resist workshops because they think clients will steal their concept if they teach it in a workshop. The reality is few people have time or inclination to work hard. Most people want a fun “experiential event” with a like-minded community. Host an event where people in your niche can assemble. We offered workshops and raffle sign-ups at the fair. These added names to our customer database!

Business to Business Businesses provide services and pretty things to their customer base. Is there an overlap? We sold mini floral vases to restaurants that wanted something live and unique and didn’t want to pay for a service to change out fresh flowers. Most businesses have birthdays, retirement, and end-of-year parties. They want a unique gift.

Be the expert What is the next step up for an expert in your field? My friend had landscape design opportunities using succulents. I moved into bookkeeping and administration for other small businesses.

Nothing lasts forever

Partnerships dissolve for a couple of reasons.

• When a business system is functional, life is easy! Every year, there is a better routine. It is natural to question the partnership once habits and systems feel more natural. You can do more by yourself, find a cheaper alternative or choose to expand.
• The market changes. Products become obsolete or less of a novelty. That is what happened to us — succulents were no longer a novelty. Customers could find plants and arrangements cheaper at Walmart.
• People change! People retire, move away, and get distracted by family concerns. Women, in particular, change their work-life balance as they transition from wife to mother, to caretaker, depending on the age of family members.
• Creative cycles are project-based. Expand the side hustle into a small business, switch products, move personnel around, or try something new. Sometimes, our work life is “been there, done that.” Time is ripe for new directions.

We amicably “broke up” our partnership and dissolved the business. Years later, we are still known as the “succulent ladies.” Partnership and friendships are different concepts. Our friendship continued because of our communication skills.

Share your passion, talents, and services. Don’t overthink business results. There will be lessons learned — it will be to your benefit. However the partnership ends, pivoting is not a failure. It’s making space for new adventures.