Читать книгу Start & Run a Graphic Design Business - Michael Huggins - Страница 22

It’s a tough question. Should you enter into your business with full control over it? Or should you share the decision making, burdens, and profits with another like-minded person? There are obvious pros and cons about entering into a partnership, but do the benefits outweigh the drawbacks? That’s the real question and, ultimately, only you can answer it. Only you know what you want and what you consider to be a good arrangement.

The bottom line is: Partnerships are challenging. It doesn’t mean that they don’t work or that they can’t work. They absolutely can. In fact, I think I have a great partnership with my wife, Anita. But there is a lot of pressure involved in partnerships and, in my opinion, partnerships have a hard time surviving in today’s business environment.

One of the main reasons designers consider partnering is for the simple fact they don’t want to go it alone. Designers who get that “entrepreneurial bug” to start a business are quickly attacked by the “entrepreneurial seizure” (a kind of professional paralysis) when they realize they are leaving the comfort and predictability of working for another company for the great unknown.

Naturally, these designers begin looking for someone to share in their anxiety. After all, they’ve spent most of their working lives sitting beside someone in the cubicle next to them. What’s going to happen when that person is no longer there?

The second reason designers consider partnering is because they feel they need some support in a particular area. When you start to think of all the things you don’t know about running a design business, the learning curve alone can be enough to scare you out of it. So it’s natural to think about partnering with someone who has a different skill set than you; someone who can complement your lack of knowledge. You start to think about finding someone to help you through the rough spots and to help lighten the load. It’s a totally logical and rational thought.

Partnerships can also form for unhealthy reasons — personal insecurity. If this happens, then the partnership could be bound for eventual failure.

A partnership that stands a better chance of succeeding is one that offers a huge benefit to the client. When two talented professionals combine their skills, the result can often be better than the sum of the parts. It’s called synergy.

A good example of this is a partnership between a designer and a copywriter who have common goals and vision. This partnership brings together two very valuable creative elements that have an overt benefit to the client. By combining their talents they become even stronger and provide a distinct advantage to the client. By combining their skills it sets them apart from most of their other competitors. This is very different from forming a partnership based on insecurity or fear, or because you think the other person has skills that you need to survive.