Family Business: Partnership Mergers

In any successful family business there will likely come a time when descendants will want to take over the business from the older generation of owners. Usually, this will require that entities will need to be split into different business entities to accommodate both differences between the descendants (perhaps the descendants can’t cooperate with each…

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Building a Successful Business is Harder without Trust

It probably goes without saying that without trust in your partners, your employees, or the people you rely on for parts or supplies, building a business is exponentially more difficult. As a small business owner, I’ve had partners I trusted, partners I’ve respected, and one or two who lost my trust. So when Lynda Bekore…

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Why Marriages and Businesses Fail: A Love Story

In his speeches about strengths and weaknesses, thought leader David Rendall frequently tells the story of Brenda, a detail-oriented young lady, who falls in love with Eddie, a free-spirited young man. Brenda is the consummate ringleader. She is a planner, a gifted organizer who manages every detail and thinks deeply about every decision. She’s the sexy…

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5 Things to Consider Before You Jump into a Partnership

Pooling your talent with someone else is not a bad idea. Many people do it because of the uncertain business climate, and there are many advantages of taking your business forward with a partner. The biggest benefit you have is that you’ll get an opportunity to enjoy shared resources and complementary talent to achieve your…

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7 Partner Relationships That Can Kill a Good Startup

Most entrepreneurs who start a company alone soon come to the conclusion that two heads are better than one – someone to share the workload, the hard decisions, and the costs. In a moment of crisis, you may be tempted to take on the first person expressing interest as a co-founder. This would be a…

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Press Release Partnerships: Worth the Effort?

Many of us make it a priority to find and partner with companies that can add to our offering or extend our reach. And we rightly celebrate each such pairing, often with a mutual press release. And sometimes that’s all we end up doing. Call it a “press release partnership.” Or an opportunity missed. Or…

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New IRS Filing Deadlines for Partnerships and C Corporations in 2017

The tax-filing deadlines for small business owners have traditionally remained the same for many years. More specifically, March 15 has been a longstanding date on the calendar for entrepreneurs who operate formal business entities across all fields. However, if you haven’t heard, the IRS has changed a few key due dates for certain business income…

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Can You Pierce Layers in Supplier–Customer Partnerships?

I recently experienced an amazing effort of outreach by a vice president of a large national customer asking for a meeting with the product development team of a critical supplier, one of “my” companies. The goal, the VP stated, was to “see if these guys are battle hardened veterans that have dealt with the real-world…

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Discover the Yin and Yang of Marketing Alliances

There is strength in numbers and if you can form alliances with other businesses, you can grab some additional marketing strength. Earlier this year, I outlined a system and some tools you can use to find other businesses that are wooing the same social media audience as you’re trying to get onboard. Today, I want to suggest…

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