Planning and starting your own business, especially for retired seniors, are both fun and exciting as it marks a new chapter in your life and also, it will help you keep the financial aspect of your retired life running. However, doing it on your own can be tougher and may even bring about more stressful situations than all your working years combined—the one you retired from! Your simple solution? Get a partner on board!
While this setup appears easy enough to handle, many businesses get ruined by just a simple mismatched partnership. Great idea, yes, but sometimes, great business ideas get dumped just because partners don’t agree on the same thing—or refuse to give it a shot. Disagreements are expected especially if there’s money involved in it, however, you can eliminate most of the friction by securing these things ahead of time or prior to opening your business:
DO:  Make roles clear. That includes responsibilities each one holds. It may be harder for control freaks but trust me, it removes unnecessary confusion in the long run. Of course, assigning roles based on skills is very important so you need to assess one another‘s strength and weakness.
DON’T:  Be a passive partner. It’s your business too, you know! As much as your partner has the right to know and do things, he or she needs to let you know what’s going on in their assigned areas—and vice versa. This is what partnerships are for! Set up regular meetings to keep each other informed.
DO:  Discuss goals and expectations. Seniors should be wise enough to make sure you and your partner are in exact same page when it comes to how the business should run. Short and long term should be discussed as well as strategies you need to employ to reach those goals. While you’re at it, discuss budget as well.
DON’T:  Get resentment in the way—at least for the business. You should be able to communicate effectively with a partner. It is remotely possible if there is a wall dividing you guys so make sure there’s none.
DO:  Expect disagreements and plan how to settle disputes, if and when a problem arises. There should be a formal method on how to settle disputes and disagreements that is agreeable to both parties. A third party consultant can help.
DON’T:  Come unprepared. Never expect a partnership to always be smooth-sailing. There will be many issues to discuss once your business operates and there is bound to be a dispute along the way. Not knowing what these issues are and how they materialized will only make you vulnerable to manipulation.
Do:  Put it in writing—and have a lawyer look at it! This includes compensations, benefits, salary or how earnings should be divided. In other words, there should be an existing partnership agreement which specifically spell out responsibilities and rights of partners involved.