Creating Partnerships That Work

Whether you own a mom biz or are a mom plugged into her parish with volunteer work, you likely will be working on projects with other people. You’ll need to have a process for discerning which requests align with your values and your God-given mission, and which don’t. You’ll need to learn how to create win-win arrangements.

Partnerships could include:

• A business agreement with a colleague
• A joint venture relationship
• An employee relationship
• An outside contractor relationship.
• A volunteer relationship in your parish or community
• Even getting babysitters is making business deals.

When evaluating the cost/benefits of a collaboration you must consider,

1. Your Values

View your core values list. (If you don’t have one, make one.) Fidelity to your core values prevents you from ending up in a life you hate: rushing, being behind, and missing those important family moments. Ensure your potential partners own compatible values or their future actions may be out-of-sync with your plans.

2. Your Time

How much time will your commitment take?

For example, with teaching a class, calculate materials preparation and editing time, along with minutes and hours instructing, corresponding with the students and faculty, etc. Divide by your compensation for your hourly rate.

Also be sure to factor in administrative cost to you or your bookkeeper, like if you will be paying bills or expenses.

3. The Opportunity Cost

How would you use the time if you did not enter into the agreement?

• How would this affect your family time?
• Where might personal care time be squeezed out with this?
• Would this affect new product creation?
• How much less marketing time would you have?
• What would the impact be on new sales leads?
• What other joint ventures would you not be able to invest in?

4. The Opportunity

What could this partnership bring: more clients, more exposure, incentives to put together materials you need to put together anyway?

• The opportunity will vary depending on the stage of your business. If there aren’t many competing opportunities, a less than ideal project might still be worth doing.
• Think out of the box. I had an opportunity to do forensic therapy assessments that paid four to six times my regular hourly rate. While I my focus was growing my coaching rather than my therapy practice, doing the evaluations made sense. They generated extra cash for marketing investments in my coaching business.

Now, conduct the same analysis from the perspective of your potential partner. Understand their benefits and risks. This insight helps you create tailored win-win solutions.

Once you have pictured arrangements that would benefit you and your potential partner, you have found the sweet spot.

• Pray that if God wants this to be it will.
• Be open to creative solutions, but guard against devaluing yourself, your time, and your values to make something work.
• Be honest and humble about your development and the state of your business. Don’t inflate your worth, because you could miss challenges that would up level.
• Know how to sell the idea. You may have analyzed the win-win benefits more than your potential partner has.
• Walk away if you can’t come to terms.

As a woman of faith, you know when God closes one door, he opens another. Using a step-by-step process will make sure the door you walk through leads to “win-win”.

The Catholic Mompreneurs Biz and Life Tip: You become skilled at making business deals when your vision is well-defined, you have the clarity of good personal and spiritual self-care, and you walk through the evaluation process with God by your side. Shore up any weaknesses in any of those three areas, and you’ll be ready for your next win-win.

Copyright 2014, Christina M. Weber