My partner and I want different things from the business. Help!

I had assumed that my partner and I wanted the same things out of our business, but now I sense not. Does it matter?

I recently spent time with the joint owners of a business – let’s call it Fireball. Part of the time I spent with both owners together and part of the time one-on-one with each of them.

In the joint sessions, which focused initially on day-to- day operational matters, the two partners were very in tune with each other. They had the same attitude to employees, customer service, attention to detail, etc. They made a good pair. One was quite externally focused – marketing, sales and customers – the other quite process, and internally, driven.

What was interesting then, was the discovery in the one-on-one sessions, that the two partners wanted very different things out of the business.

One partner, Chris, wanted to create a business that would provide her with a good standard of living while also enabling her to work school-friendly hours. Now that the business was making good money, she was keen not to risk their successful model in the name of growth, and she was quite adamant that the business should be capped at a maximum of 10 employees.

Her partner, Juliet, was really quite the opposite. She was prepared to invest many hours and dollars into building a sizeable business that would afford her “a harbour front house”. The thought of keeping the business relatively small was anathema to her.

While you may be amazed to learn that the two partners had no idea that their opposite number wanted such different outcomes from the business, it’s actually a situation that’s quite common.

It seems that while we are happy to jump into bed with a partner, and sometimes even discuss the prenuptial (the what-we-do-if-we-fall-out plan) we are rarely honest about what we personally want out of the business.

I think the reason for this is twofold. First of all, we are often not honest with ourselves, and indeed seldom ask ourselves the direct question, “What do I need personally out of this business?”

The other reason is almost a form of embarrassment. There is this belief among entrepreneurs that they are expected to want to build the big impressive business and “buy the yacht” so they are loathe to admit they just want a modest business that delivers them a good, but not amazing, lifestyle.

Thus when business partners get together they so want to start the business that they don’t want the unpleasant distraction of an honest discussion about what they want personally out of it.

Does it matter that the two owners want different outcomes from the business? Well yes, because the outcomes drive the design of the business. As Juliet noted about Chris, “No wonder she kept finding reasons why we shouldn’t hire more staff”. Of course she did, she didn’t want the business to get any bigger, she just hadn’t told that directly to Juliet.

It’s salvageable though. Chris and Juliet are working out a model for the business that will provide Chris with what she wants (secure income, reasonable working days) while Juliet takes the business on a bigger riskier, journey. A model they would never have thought about investigating if they hadn’t realised they wanted such different outcomes.

Julia Bickerstaff’s expertise is in helping businesses grow profitably. She runs two businesses:Butterfly Coaching, a small advisory firm with a unique approach to assisting SMEs with profitable growth; and The Business Bakery, which helps kitchen table tycoons build their best businesses. Julia is the author of “How to Bake a Business”  and was previously a partner at Deloitte. She is a chartered accountant and has a degree in economics from The London School of Economics (London University).