August Focus: Domestic Cleaning Service

Partnership or Sole Trader?

I have often been asked when teaching my workshops what is the best option when starting up a business. Does a person go into the business on their own, or do they take on a partner? I will speak from experience here and advise you as to what I think is the best way to go, but only you know all the facts about your situation, so ultimately the decision is up to you.

I have had many partnerships throughout my career, especially when I was dancing. In fact, competitive Ballroom Dancing requires you to have a partner in order to be able to do it, so there is really no choice. Being a redhead, my partnerships would rarely last very long if I was matched with another fiery personality, as we would clash too much. When matched with someone whom I didn’t clash with my partnerships would last about three years. I would always keep my commitment to train when in a dancing partnership (or if talking about my business partners to turn up for work when in a business partnership), but I would find in some partnerships that my partner did not have the same level of commitment that I did. I would find too that I often had more natural talent at different tasks, and so spent quite a fair bit of time limiting my own forward progression while waiting for my partner to catch up with me. So for me the best way in business was to operate as a sole trader and to employ the people that I needed to surround myself with in order to balance out the operational capacities of the business.

I was involved in one business where my partner would constantly cancel our meetings because of her commitments to her daughter or her studies, so I found myself doing nearly all the work while she expected to get half of all the money we made. It didn’t take me long to work out how unfair that was and to extricate myself from that arrangement.  Another business partnership I entered with a male friend of mine had me doing the running of the business while he kept his regular daytime income, and I worked from 8am to midnight, once again with a 50/50 split on the profits. Basically the business was mine, but my partner expected to get half just because he had built some of the petition work in the office while setting up the business. Another situation that I was involved in when running my cleaning business had me become entangled in a partnership with a lady who knew more about the Builders’ Cleaning side of the business. But once again I found myself supervising the staff, dealing with the Builders and doing all the paperwork, not to mention mopping up the messes (so to speak) when the staff weren’t doing their job competently.

After observing myself for all these years I realised what it was that made me think I needed a partnership anyway. Firstly, I had been involved in some very successful partnerships when dancing and had expected to find the same when running a business. Secondly, I didn’t actually believe in myself and my own talents and capabilities enough to be confident of the fact that I didn’t need a partner in order to make things happen. Once I began to realise that I was more than capable of handling a business on my own, and that because of who I am I needed to find the business that was right for me ie: one that took advantage of my own unique strengths and talents, I stopped looking for business partners and began working totally on my own.

This is what you too need to think about when considering going into partnership in a business of your own. It will also be important to note that not all business partners are honest. Many people have told me stories of how their business partner stole money out of the business, or caused such havoc that the business failed. When this happens, if you started out as friends, your friendship won’t last under these circumstances. Better to only go into partnership with your husband or wife.

Read in the next article: Partnership or Sole Trader II (Know Thyself)