A business partner can offer many things to a new venture – skills and cash usually being the most prominent among them.
But a partner can also prove a crucial counterpoint to your own ideas and strategy, as Patrick Bourke, owner of Southern Cross Protection, found out to his cost when he ended up facing a cashflow crisis.
“Not giving anyone a chance to challenge my thinking, and taking on all the risk myself as well, led to not having the capacity to cope when we needed it,” he admits.
Fortunately, Bourke managed to turn things around and now runs the largest security patrol company in Australia with a $50 million turnover. Today, he explains how he did it.
Elsewhere, Starfish Ventures executive Tony Glenning has some tips on whether to write a business plan with investors in mind and we have news of the 2012 kick-off of Sydney start-up jamboree Tech23.
