There are plenty of enviable perks when it comes to starting a business with a partner by your side. You’ll have twice the resources, double the brainpower and someone to help pull you through when times get tough. Unfortunately, it’s been reported that 70% of all partnerships fail. “If there’s poor communication or the two of you have different levels of commitment when it comes to time or money, your partnership can sink faster than the Titanic,” says Linda Sidhu, a quiz funnel strategist, whose first business partnership ended in a dissolution of the company—even though it was profitable and gaining momentum.
Rather than let it all burn to the ground, Sidhu created a new solo business that enabled her to have her first $10k month after just 60 days of going solo. “Your worst moments in life can propel you to your best moments,” Sidhu says. Whether your partner wants to part ways or you have to go solo for other reasons, follow Sidhu’s suggestions for making sure your next venture is a much greater, solo success.
How To Go It Alone After Losing Your Business Partner | Stephanie Burns
Amaris Kristina Harris
1. Avoid A “Loss Aversion” Mentality
Quite often, the pain of a loss can feel twice as intense as the joy of a win—something experts refer to in explaining our aversion to loss. Consider the agony of losing $1,000 in a bad business investment compared to the excitement of winning $1,000 in the lottery. Which hits deeper?
When Sidhu looks back at what could have been a disastrous situation, she’s thankful that she was able to avoid obsessing over the pain of losing her business and get excited about jump-starting her new venture. “The trick is to not let failure consume you,” says Sidhu, who ended up launching a new solo business creating personality quizzes that convert leads to new clients. “So many business owners do everything possible to avoid failure—but failure can be powerful. With the right outlook, failure can be the force that allows you to take action and find success with the wisdom you’ve gained along the way.” Sidhu used mantras, like “No one can take away your destiny,” to keep herself focused on the wins ahead of her.
2. Salvage What You Can
Consider hiring a business attorney who is skilled in mediation. Aside from money, there will be other assets that come into question when you split the company 50/50. “Instead of having to lose our website, email list, and social media accounts when the business closed, my attorney helped negotiate to keep the content I solely created so that I could use it to rebrand my new business,” says Sidhu. “This was a massive win and a big reason why I landed on my feet.” If you’re starting a new company after a failed venture, think about the assets you previously created and see if you can gain possession of them and repurpose them in your new business.
3. Outsource What You’re Not Good At
When you stay in your zone of genius, you feel excited about your work and you’ll be able to thrive. But with any business, there are always boring tasks that need to get done so you can stay afloat. (Bookkeeping, anyone?). Begin to pay attention when you feel overwhelmed by particular tasks—to the point where it’s holding you back—and hire those out instead.
You may begin to notice that the tasks you dread are the ones that your partner eagerly took on. Just because you don’t have their expertise anymore, doesn’t mean you have to develop it in yourself. “I’m very creative but terrible at tech. That was my former partner’s strong suit,” Sidhu said. “So I hired a virtual assistant to get my website up and running in a few short weeks. This was a task that would otherwise take me months to do myself.”
4. Spread The Word
For your new venture to succeed, people have to know about it. In the first few months after rebranding, Sidhu was a guest speaker at multiple online summits, appeared on several podcasts and led workshops for various mastermind groups. This not only helped make her an expert in her niche, but also established her new business and got her tons of potential clients.
Increasing her visibility resulted in her doubling the income she previously made within six months of starting the business. “I started a company with someone else because it felt safer and more secure to team up with another person,” says Sidhu. “But shutting down that company led to a level of success and stability that I hadn’t even imagined.”
