Venting: Tired of crappy business partners

[new wave]

Sense June of this year I've been involved with a friend from out-of-state as the investor for his "music producing" career/hobby. In the beginning everything was cool until it was time for the checks to start rolling in, then strangely enough my calls stopped being answered, text messages stopped being replayed to...no emails or anything of facebook.

The first check was due in november 1st and after a week passes I get all these excuses as to why my money is not in my bank account. Finally after about 2 weeks I get my money. My friend/business partner has still not called me to tell me any updates and has completely left me in the wind.

Dec 1st rolled around and he's late with this payment too. Getting kinda pissed.

... This isnt the first time I got myself into this kinda crap ..

About a year ago I hooked up with some kid because we had a lot in common. Long story short, when it was time to get work done and STOP goddamn day dreaming about ideas, I get the cold shoulder. It was all fun and games to talk about making millions of dollars but when the business plan had to be written on a friday/sat/sun night it's funny how they always had plans of some lame ass excuse.

I have SIX failed businesses under my belt. FOUR of which never saw the light of day.

The other TWO were MINE. While they were short lived, at least thats a start I guess.

Just tired of hooking up with dreamers/ big talkers. Such a waste of my time and money.

/ vent

[atownag]

Amen brother!

I've had 3 failed business partners. One was my wife. We're still happily married, we're just never going to do that again.

One did not execute, always giving excuses of not having time. He had Fridays and weekends off, but did not seem to have time to accomplish much. The last one I almost never saw. She was running her own business and did not pay much heed to ours.

The lesson I've learned is that I need proof that the person can and has executed, and is self-driven. I am pretty good at pumping people up, but I get tired of constantly doing it in order to keep things running. People either have that fire in their soul, or they do not. Watch the person you are thinking about as they talk about entrepreneurial pursuits. You can tell when you see it. It's like Christmas morning when you see it. Their energy feeds yours, and vice versa.

[SC93]

I've all but given up myself. Time after time I am all fired up, just to be let down when it was time to execute. Seems as though people are scared to make money.

[atownag]

SC93,

It seems like there are quite a few people on this forum that are self-starters. Sure, there are those that are all-talk. Some times you find that gem though. When you do, never let them go.

[ChristianBrown09]

Woah. I'm still pretty new to the game of entrepreneurship, but my partner now is invaluable to me now. Before I met him, I was doing everything on my own and I was even (fairly) successful at my endevours. But now that I've met a partner who was in the same situation as myself (college trep with a fresh into the black startup), operations on both of our individual companies, as well as collaborative projects has increased tremendously. Sometimes you just need another personality around you to cover the ground that you've missed. I'm still weary about a epartner, but if you can distinguish between an entrepreneur and a hustler (both on and offline), you should be fine.

Have you completely given up on partner ventures?

[SC93]

No, if I ever find the right person, I'd do it. I'm not even picky about what we do because I have several ideas... new one today that could be better than any of my others (my girlfriend even liked it which is unusual lol)... but I'll wait patiently and if I ever find that person... it will be a great. If I never find that person... I won't lose sleep.

Honestly, I have so much going on in life in general I don't have a lot to offer except the idea and managment on getting it going. I used to love working 24/7 to get things going... I've been burned so many times now I might give it 24 hours work in 7 days. lol

[ChristianBrown09]

Lol what kind of business do you usually get involved in?

[SC93]

I don't limit myself. I've had a cleaning business since the 90's.... that is my base and I'd never have a partner in that business. But, I would start another with someone. I've done several things before I started this business and several things along the way. I will say this... people constantly say to find something you love to do... I have never loved or even liked the cleaning business for 1 second in my life. But it has made me some money I'd never have believed I'd make and I will do it until the day I die because it makes great money.

Before I used to say hey... I'll pay for what ever it is... let's just do it... people would be all for it.... until it came time to take action. So then I went to the let's each go in 50/50... same thing happened. Now I'm at the, I'll do 5% and you do 95% and we can make this thing work. Everyone thinks I'm crazy but I'm done doing all the work. I can go buy a stack of scratch off tickets and lose less money than depending on people to try and make money.

But I will know when the right person comes along... if ever... and when that happens I'll be eager to do more than my fair share.

[SC93]

I guess I never answered your question. lol I love marketing. I do all my sisters advertising and she stays busy. And a girl that used to work for me has me do all her advertising. Odd thing is... I never see anyone else do the things I do... but it works so she ain't complaining. I'm not tech savvy. Mostly service businesses.

[ChristianBrown09]

Lol Respectable. Very respectable actually. I have a passion for marketing as well.. I pride myself on brand building and creating creative campaigns. I'm an idea guy, but I love to actually carry out my ideas and make them into a reality. I have a tech background, only because my mother was a programmer and got me a job for Dell my sophomore year in College and I HATED working that grind. Money was good tho lol. I started a computer repair company a little over a year ago, and I've made a few twists on it here and there and now it's unconventional computer repair, but profitable. Still in it's infancy, but remember this post! lol My partner is more into internet marketing than I am (That is a WHOLE new world and I'm learning from him everyday) and he even owns a social media management company, but he's an Idea guy too. It's almost like our ideas feed from each other. I'm always in favor of someone going into business with a partner, but only if they are the right partner.

Bad Partner < No Partner < Good Partner

WHEW! lol longest blog post I've ever had. no lie.