Hernan Vazquez explains why friends make poor business partners and how to find the right one instead. Pair your weaknesses with someone else's strengths: a starter needs a finisher. Build long-term relationships through genuine value, not short-term deal-chasing, and keep business separate from friendship.
Hey guys, what's up? Hernan Vazquez here. If you want to know how to choose and pick your next best great business partner, this is the video that you want to check out, so stay tuned. Hey guys, what's up? Hernan Vazquez here. Welcome to another video. I'm here in my home studio in Argentina, and I just wanted to welcome you guys. And I didn't also want to miss the opportunity to thank you because of the amount of support, you know, it's been crazy, the emails, the comments, etc., that I've been getting. It's been pretty, pretty crazy, so thank you about that. Now another great thing that happened yesterday actually is that I've been interviewed by John Lee Dumas of Entrepreneur on Fire. I think, I honestly think that that is one of the biggest and most valuable entrepreneurial podcasts all over the world. Okay, so if you haven't heard about him, if you haven't listened or subscribed to his podcast, I'm gonna leave a link below so that you can do so. You know, he's having entrepreneurial conversations 7 days a week, and you know, you can, you can get a ton of value out of that podcast. All right guys, so go ahead and Click on the link on the description below and subscribe to his podcast. And I think my interview will go out on August 16th, 2016, depending on when you're watching this video. But I'm gonna post it as well on my Twitter, on my Facebook account, on my blog, so you can subscribe to this video and you can follow me on Twitter so that you know exactly when that comes out. And one of the questions that we went through in the interview was the worst entrepreneurial moment. So as you know, just as a disclaimer, I'm probably not the best when it comes to picking a right partner because that's exactly what we discussed on the worst entrepreneurial moment. I had a partner back there in 2007 or something when I started doing web design, et cetera, And things didn't turn out that well because I mistakenly partnered with somebody that was a friend. So friends do not usually make good partners. I mean, they can, but that's not the norm. Now, how on earth, if your friends aren't capable enough of being good partners, how on earth would you actually go out there and finding good business partners. And my number one suggestion would be to hire or to find somebody that complements your weaknesses. Now, this has to be related to your own strengths and weaknesses. So as Gary Vaynerchuk usually says, you need to be self-aware of your weaknesses and your strengths. But once you have that, once you have gone through some hoops and some challenges, etc., you can definitely be really aware of what your weaknesses are, what your strengths are. And what I would suggest is that by finding a great business partner means that you will find somebody that loves doing what you hate, or that loves doing some stuff that you do not want to do. And you know, if you're a great starter— that's my case, for example, I'm a great starter of things I can think of great ideas, great business projects, I can put together teams, etc., but I'm not a great finisher, okay? I have some issues, for example, following through. So what I would do in my case, and one of the best strategies that I, that I've always had, and the best partners that I've had, and the success that I have right now is thanks to the partnerships that I made with people that are actually great finishers. So probably they are not the best when it comes to coming up with project ideas. Maybe they are not the most creative people, but they are stubborn when it comes to business. They are great following through. They are machines, working machines, etc. So my suggestion would be step number one: to hire or to find somebody that complements your weaknesses. If the two, if you are two and the two partners are are good at selling and starting things, who will finish them, okay? If you really have a good relationship with a friend and you want to go ahead and start a business with him and you find that you still have weaknesses between the two, you can either go out there and find a third partner or hire somebody as an employee or maybe a CEO that will actually complement your weaknesses. So that's step number 1. Step number 2 is actually to go out there and network with people. And by networking I mean, I'm gonna create a video shortly about how to develop your own personal branding, but by networking I mean not to be out there on the lookout for opportunities that are short-term. You know, that's usually the term that we use as, you know, the way we call networking. That's not how it works. What I mean with networking is to actually go out there, find the people that you admire the most, and do something valuable for them, and strive to get a long-term relationship with them. That way you will create a great deal of opportunities for you to partner up with them and show them that you can complement their weaknesses, because we all are— everyone, we all are all human beings. We all have our weaknesses. Even the people that you admire the most, they do it as well, and they are looking for partners that will complement their weaknesses. Okay guys, so if you're looking— in short, if you're looking for a great business partner, try to get away of your friend circle. At least if you have, you know, a really successful friend or a couple of friends and you really want to go ahead and develop a business relationship with them. Take business separately from friendship and relationships. You know, that's usually my case. I try to keep things really, really separately because if something goes wrong in business, and there's a ton of things that could go wrong, you do not lose that friendship, okay? So it's super, super important that you divide right there and then. And if you're like me, if you like to find business partners outside of your circle of friends, Remember to find somebody that complements your and balances your weaknesses, okay? So be really aware of what you're good at, put that into the mix, and let the other person complement and balance whatever you're not good at. Again, I'm a great starter, but I'm not a good finisher, so I try to partner up with people that are actually good at following through with projects. Okay, guys? So that would be my idea of a perfect partner. If you have any other ideas, if you have any other suggestions for videos, just drop me a comment below. You can also follow me on Instagram. I'm pretty active over there, on Twitter, and you can join the Facebook group. We have a free Facebook group where we discuss entrepreneurship, internet marketing, digital marketing, SEO, PPC, and a bunch of other good things. Okay guys, thank you for watching this video and I'll see you on the next one. Bye-bye.
