Last Saturday, I had the honor of being a guest lecturer at an Entrepreneur class at Wake Tech. Many of the students were considering starting a business with a partner. 

I shared with them both my personal experience and the experience of many of my clients over the years.

Having the right partner can make being an entrepreneur less lonely and less challenging. But having the wrong partner can kill your business and/or if the partner was your friend, kill your friendship.

There are at least three criteria you should use before deciding to bring in a partner:

1. You can trust the prospective partner with your wallet and checkbook.
2. The prospective partner brings something to the business that you are lacking.
3. Both you and the prospective can agree upon a defined set of responsibilities and how decisions will be made.

If you know your prospective partner well, this process can go very quickly. If you do not know him or her well, consider “dating” for a while before a decision is made on becoming a partner.

After my discussion, at least half of the students who wanted to bring in a partner early decided to hold off on that decision until they did some due diligence. Perhaps my Saturday morning talk saved at least one budding entrepreneur from making a terrible mistake.