Partnerships are all about finding the right person
JUST a decade ago, the idea of going beyond family and friends to help find one’s significant other would be greeted by a mixture of confusion, curiosity and pity. However, times change and the plethora of introduction or dating agencies have expanded apace. Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day – and of course entrepreneurs have stepped in to help others hunt for love.
Berkeley International (see article right) aims to match up some of the wealthiest people around – money might not be able to buy you love, but it can clearly help facilitate the process. Mairead Molloy’s background in psychology has, she says, “helped in understanding what my clients are looking for and why.” Although particular characteristics suit someone to being an entrepreneur, Molloy and others prove there is no defined list of hard skills necessary to succeed.
Molloy is adamant that being in control is a key prompt for her entrepreneurial spirit – it’s common to hear entrepreneurs say this: most simply can’t imagine working for someone else. However, many entrepreneurs start businesses in partnership with some else – sometimes their significant other. Husband and wife Nick and Kath Whitworth (see article below) give their top tips on how to negotiate the trials of starting a business without rocking your relationship.
But your business partner doesn’t have to be your other half for your relationship with them to be significant. The most talked about companies in recent years have been partnerships. The late and great Steve Jobs couldn’t have built Apple without Steve Wozniak – they met in lectures at the offices of two other modern tech legends: Bill Hewlett and David Packard. Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Paul Allen and Goggle’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin deserve equal credit.
All of the above met by chance in the real world; but as with dating, the internet has the potential to open up the many and varied ways that business partners can meet. In the UK, Company Partners (www.companypartners.com) tries to bring together like-minded business partners (as well as angels and mentors); and was founded, appropriately enough, by the husband and wife team Dr Hazel and Lawrence Gilbert.