The power of partnerships...

Over the past five years I have certainly learned a thing or two about the Power of Partnerships, or to be more precise the "correct partnerships".

As the founder of a small social enterprise which has recently celebrated it's 5th year in business. I want to share a bit of insight about the good, bad and ugly things that have happened recently. When running a small business sometimes its easier to let bigger organisations lead on projects applications when entering a joint venture, meaning the money goes into the lead company's account. A fee should be agreed and the lead company should pay you for the delivery of the project. This all sounds very simple and quite straight forward you might say....Well let me share with you some of the key things to have in place before entering into any sort of verbal partnership arrangement and sad to say more importantly "especially with people that you know".

So here it goes:

• Tip number 1.

Make sure you agree your payment terms and fee plus state exactly when you want to get paid.

• Tip number 2.

Be very clear on who is doing what when the contract begins.

• Tip number 3.

Once you are happy with the agreement make sure you get a contract agreement in place which is known as memorandum of understanding (MoU) https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/mou.asp

Tip number 4.

Protect your programmes especially if you have designed programmes written specifically for your company for example: YMSN's has four programmes, Ready Steady Work (RSW) and Mum in Business (MIB) are two out of the four which have been designed and titled for YMSN which means they are the company's intellectual property, Slight confession MIB was actually named by my daughter when she was nine years old!

Tip number 5.

Be prepared for when partnerships do not work out. Try not to get discouraged and always remember integrity is key and is all part of business learning.

Tip number 6.

Be the bigger person and know when to walk away from something that you are not happy with. Always remember it is not personal its business and not everyone understand Ethical Leadership in Business.

Tip number 7.

Keep all of your email trails as backup as you may just need them as your evidence one day!

Tip number 8.

Always keep smiling enjoy what you do and and never loose sight of why you started out in the first place.

Why I decided to write this article;

I decided to write this article as a simple guide to encourage small business owners who has entered into a partnership which did not work out as expected. A few months ago I had a bad experience with an organisation and it deeply disappointed me but I did not allow this to get me down. I had to reflect and digest my own advice. One of the great things about being in the world of business means we are constantly learning.

Moving forward I now know that any partnership I enter into I will defiantley be taking on board my own tips.

Hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Fiona Small

CEO

Young Mums Support Network

[email protected]

www.ymsn.co.uk