Dear Aunty B,
I am at loggerheads with my business partner over a new project. He wants to invest a lot of time and our firm’s resources in the new project and I want to start small and scale it up if it works. He believes I am being risk adverse and will hamper the long term potential of the project by thinking so small. I think he is being to over-optimistic (he says to tell you that I am a pessimist) and we are putting too much at risk, including distracting my people from core operations. We have to sign off on the budget and neither of us can agree! What do you think Aunty?
LG and TD
Sydney
Dear LG and TD,
Wow. You have the perfect partnership! An optimist and a pessimist. A big thinker and a details-focused executor. An entrepreneur and a hands-on manager. You will go far!
What you need to do is compromise. You insist he listens to you and you listen to him. Maybe your natural pessimism will hold back the potential. Maybe you will look back and wish you had aimed for a bigger success. Maybe you could run a few scenarios and start to feel comfortable with bigger goals. Then grab your partner by the scruff of the neck and force him to compromise too. Run through scenarios that show him what will happen if he goes ahead with his wildest dreams. Show him the effects on the business if the key staff are not focused on operations. Get him good and scared. And then do a plan that incorporates the best thinking of the two of you!
Be smart,
Your Aunty B
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James was the editor and publisher of SmartCompany and LeadingCompany for five years. He is now the Australian Financial Review‘s companies & markets editor, and a former BRW editor.
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