Why teamwork is overrated and why partnerships fail

The greatest entrepreneurial thinkers of modern and not so modern times, in my opinion, were Henry Ford and Steve Jobs. Ford famously relied on his own intuition, uttering immortal phrases about the singular choice of colour for the Model T and Jobs was a solo thinker who invented a software and hardware ecosystem that is still difficult to leave in 2023.

I'm looking to grow this business, take it to a new level of turnover and profit, and one issue I often ask myself and others ask of me is to do with increasing the team. "You should look to expand the personnel, add some additional team members."

It takes me about 10 seconds to mouth a periodic answer and it's always "No."

Don't get me wrong, I'm not deigning to compare myself to Jobs or Ford, no; what I'm saying internally and externally here, is that teamwork (when it becomes a partnership or firm collaboration) is not for this business or me.

I've been in business partnerships twice and each ended in dissolution and resentment, but what happened during each business, where there was a 50-50 stakeholding by myself and the other party, remains a salutary lesson for me - and perhaps should for you.

I use "perhaps" as a qualifier because I'll inevitably get some comments saying partnerships can work; partnerships do work; ours works.

Great.

But what I can tell you from my own two business experiences is that partnerships sink ships and partnerships are the worst ships to ever leave a port.

This is what happens in a partnership, akin to the romance of a new marriage:

+ You start off very happy with great plans for the future

+ The newness of working with someone is exciting

+ You equally share the burden of implementing ideas and putting in the graft

+ You spend time managing the other person and becoming irritated by them that the time you're supposed to have gained by employing them is lost

Perceptions change

One partner perceives that the other is not working as hard as them after a month of honeymooning. One partner doesn't seem to be generating work but "coasting". One or both of you have buyer's remorse and rue the day you entered this business relationship. But mostly, there's resentment - a killer of business and personal partnerships, like marriage - that creeps in and becomes a terminal cancer that literally infects everything it touches.

There is though an answer, from my experience - don't turn into Boxer, from "Animal Farm" vowing to work harder on your own. No.

Seek collaborations not partnerships

Farm out parts of your business that take up too much time to other experts. I do exactly this - web design has many components and I cover most. But the hosting, the logos, the graphics, the technical bespoke parts are outsourced and paid for by me.

All the people I use have their own solo enterprise too and see my requests has another income stream. I don't outsource copywriting, but I will refer web design on if the project is for Shopify etc, something I don't routinely cover.

So there you have it.

I want to scale my business, so I've decided on two avenues to drive down:

1. Increasing my qualifications and skills
2. Accelerating my marketing budget

The third route, often suggested, of employing staff is a cul-de-sac for me.

I'd suggest too that if you want success in business, go it alone.

There's another reason too - you keep all the profit and revenue yourself.

If I was in a business partnership at Get Pro Copy Ltd , it would annoy me big time if I had to hand out ￡750 every time a new website order was confirmed.

No, be like Jobs, be like Ford - and make your business a one-man, one-woman success.