Growth & Strategy Conversations
A good partner adds what you lack. A bad one adds a problem you cannot easily remove.
Partnerships are often the cheapest way for a small business to reach new customers, add a service or share a cost. They are also among the hardest decisions to reverse, because they are built on trust and often on a handshake. This conversation helps owners think about what a partnership should achieve, what each side expects, and how to begin small and write things down.
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Most partnership problems begin with two people assuming different things.
Two businesses agree to “work together”, and each has a different picture of what that means: who brings customers, who pays for what, who owns the customer relationship, who speaks for the brand. When money starts to flow, the differences surface, and by then neither side wants to be the one who raises them.
Careful partnerships are rarely slower. They simply ask the awkward questions at the start, when they are easy, rather than at the first dispute. This conversation is about asking those questions, starting small and keeping the option to leave.
What the conversation covers
36 topics across 7 areas. Seven questions to work through before saying yes.
What You Want and What You BringStart with your own side.5
- The one outcome you want: customers, a service, lower cost, reach
- Why a partner is better than hiring or doing it yourself
- What you offer in return, beyond money
- What you are not willing to share
- What would make you walk away
If you cannot say what the partner gets, you are not yet proposing a partnership.
Kinds of PartnershipDifferent shapes, different risks.5
The heavier the shape, the more it matters to put things in writing and take professional advice. A shared stall needs little. Shared ownership needs a lawyer.
- Supplier or sourcing arrangements
- Complementary businesses who share customers
- Joint marketing or a shared event
- Making or selling under someone else’s name
- A joint venture with shared money and ownership
Fit and TrustCheck before you commit.5
- How the other business treats its own customers and suppliers
- Whether people you trust have dealt with them
- Their financial position, as far as you can honestly tell
- Whether their customers are the ones you want
- Whether the two owners can disagree and still talk
Who Owns WhatThe questions that cause trouble later.5
- Who owns the customer relationship and the contact details
- Who sets prices and discounts
- Who can use whose name and logo, and how
- Who pays for what, and who gets paid when
- Who handles complaints, returns and refunds
Customer data is also covered by data protection obligations. Ask a professional what applies to you.
A Small Pilot FirstThirty to ninety days is usually enough to learn.5
A hypothetical example: a small gym and a physiotherapy clinic agree to a ninety-day pilot where each hands out the other’s card. They agree to look at how many people mention it. The pilot costs almost nothing and teaches whether a bigger arrangement is worth it.
- A limited scope, such as one product, one place or one campaign
- What each side will do and by when
- One shared number to look at
- A review date and a clear way to end it
- What counts as a good enough result
What to Put in WritingShort, plain and signed.6
- What each side will do and for how long
- How money is calculated and paid
- Whether either side is exclusive, and in what area
- How confidential information and customer details are handled
- How to end the arrangement, and what happens to stock or customers
- Whether to have a lawyer look at it before signing
This is awareness, not legal advice. A lawyer should review anything involving ownership, exclusivity or significant money.
Avoiding DependenceSuccess can be the problem.5
- How much of your business a single partner could account for
- What happens if they raise terms, change plans or stop
- Keeping direct contact with your own customers where the agreement allows
- A second partner or alternative route
- Reviewing the partnership every few months
What participants leave with
- A one-page partnership brief for one possible partner
- A fit and trust checklist
- A list of points to put in writing, ready to take to a lawyer
- A pilot plan with a review date and exit
- A dependence check for existing partners
What this session is not
- A matching or introduction service
- Legal advice or a contract template
- A promise that any partnership will grow the business
- A way to find investors or lenders
How the session runs
A small group, two to three hours. Each participant brings a partnership they are considering or one that is already in place. The facilitator introduces the questions with a hypothetical example, and each owner drafts their own partnership brief. The group then plays the other side: asking what a partner would want, what would worry them and what they would ask for in writing. Participants should leave with a pilot they could propose that week.
What your students leave with
- A clear sentence on what they want from a partnership, and what they would offer
- A view of the main kinds of partnership and which suits their situation
- A fit check for a possible partner, including what they would need to ask
- A list of points that should be in writing before starting
- A small pilot with a review date and a way out
- A habit of watching for dependence on one partner
Scheduled sessions
Nothing scheduled yet
Sessions are arranged with a college once a date is agreed. Ask us and we will find the right person for it.
A student rather than a college? See what is coming up, or ask your placement team to host this.
Start small, write it down and keep a way out.
Tell us who your students are and what stage they are at. Sessions are free for participants.