With the New Year now in fruition, many aspiring young entrepreneurs are taking their first step in starting a business. One of the main things you should do before agreeing to partner up with anyone is to establish what your key strengths and weakness are. Having a clear understanding of your best qualities and aiming to develop others will not only help your partner understand what you will be bringing to the table when working together, but you can also decide what strengths, expertise or experience your partner should have that can successively help the business.

Julian Dunkerton and James Holder, the founders of popular clothing brand Superdry why they decided to start their business together. James explains,

“Julian had an extensive experience and love of vintage American clothing predominately denim, I had a deep admiration for Japanese imagery and their acute approach to attention to detail and we both had a love of sleek, British tailored cuts. The combination of those three elements had never existed before and that is what gave Superdry its unique identity and the foundation to quickly grow from.”

These elements have been recognised within Superdry clothing by many celebrities and fashion influencers across the globe, giving Superdry great exposure and building more trust in the brand.

Knowing how to work together is also an important factor when choosing a business partner. Understanding who will be better handling certain aspects of the business is much better than starting out with the hopes of sharing every single task that needs to be done day in and day out. You may find that over time you become equally good at the majority of tasks that need to be done throughout your business but success early on, will be much more likely if you can focus the majority of your attention on particular business tasks with your partner focusing on the other tasks that need to be done.

Karl Young, Search Laboratory, Leeds, United Kingdom (http://www.searchlaboratory.com)

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