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8: How to Fix Your High Maintenance Business Partnerships
Two heads are better than one but it takes intention and patience to work in partnership successfully.
Whether your business partnership means co-owning your brand, working with multiple vendors, or both, all of these require regular maintenance to keep them high functioning, valuable, and gratifying.
But what about when you're in a partnership that's headed in the wrong direction? What do you do about it then?
I frequently coach retailers and makers through the vendor partnership aspect of business. What most merchants don't realize is that the true value of these relationships does not center around physical inventory.
In fact, there are many components that contribute to awarding the metaphoric Partnership Gold Star — like being reliable, consistent, and a clear communicator.
Though many partners have the best intentions, you may find yourself in a business relationship that needs repair. Perhaps someone is falling short of your expectations or you're falling short of theirs.
What should your next move be? Reflect on these questions to find out before you take your next step:
- How did this business partnership become high maintenance?
- Is this a different partnership than you expected or is your current situation unsurprising?
- What is this partnership worth to you in your business?
- How have you or are you contributing to the problem?
- If this partnership were to be fixed, improved, salvaged, or grow, what must be true?
As you sketch out where to go from here, incorporate your Retail Success Style into your action plan. You can discover your style in 60-second by that the free Retail Success Style quiz at MerchantMethod.com/Quiz. © Thinking Thumbprint LLC DBA Merchant Method. All rights reserved. For more information and terms of use visit MerchantMethod.com.
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By Chris Guillot, Merchant MethodTwo heads are better than one but it takes intention and patience to work in partnership successfully.
Whether your business partnership means co-owning your brand, working with multiple vendors, or both, all of these require regular maintenance to keep them high functioning, valuable, and gratifying.
But what about when you're in a partnership that's headed in the wrong direction? What do you do about it then?
I frequently coach retailers and makers through the vendor partnership aspect of business. What most merchants don't realize is that the true value of these relationships does not center around physical inventory.
In fact, there are many components that contribute to awarding the metaphoric Partnership Gold Star — like being reliable, consistent, and a clear communicator.
Though many partners have the best intentions, you may find yourself in a business relationship that needs repair. Perhaps someone is falling short of your expectations or you're falling short of theirs.
What should your next move be? Reflect on these questions to find out before you take your next step:
- How did this business partnership become high maintenance?
- Is this a different partnership than you expected or is your current situation unsurprising?
- What is this partnership worth to you in your business?
- How have you or are you contributing to the problem?
- If this partnership were to be fixed, improved, salvaged, or grow, what must be true?
As you sketch out where to go from here, incorporate your Retail Success Style into your action plan. You can discover your style in 60-second by that the free Retail Success Style quiz at MerchantMethod.com/Quiz. © Thinking Thumbprint LLC DBA Merchant Method. All rights reserved. For more information and terms of use visit MerchantMethod.com.