{"id":41,"date":"2023-05-26T17:16:57","date_gmt":"2023-05-26T21:16:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.tarleyrobinson.com\/?p=41"},"modified":"2023-05-26T17:16:57","modified_gmt":"2023-05-26T21:16:57","slug":"we%e2%80%99re-getting-married-isn%e2%80%99t-it-wonderful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.tarleyrobinson.com\/?p=41","title":{"rendered":"How is starting a business like getting married?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have often been struck by how much business counseling and marriage counseling can be alike.\u00a0 \u201cHe said he was really good at marketing and was going to handle all the sales.\u00a0 We haven\u2019t seen a worthwhile sale in months. \u00a0All he does is drive around, I GUESS making sales calls, but mostly just spending money.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cShe said she was going to keep the books and handle the personnel issues.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know that meant a row of shoe-boxes full of receipts and employee turnover at seventy percent!\u00a0 This place is a disaster!\u201d\u00a0 \u201cTurnover is at seventy percent because we don\u2019t have enough sales to keep anyone employed.\u00a0 If you did your job, then maybe I could do mine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Williamsburg

Starting a Business<\/p><\/div>\n

He said, she said.\u00a0 And so it goes.\u00a0 It is estimated that fifty-five percent of all first marriages fail and approximately 56% of new businesses fail within four years.\u00a0 Here are some of the reasons most often given for start-up business failures<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There seems to me, however, to be one very significant overarching reason for the similar failure rates.\u00a0 Marriages and start-up businesses often have a couple of key attributes in common\u2014not a lot of thought or knowledge about what the people are really like, the contributions they can realistically make, and not a lot of thought about what can go wrong and how it will be dealt with.<\/p>\n

When the happy couple is at the altar for the first time, they know the statistics.\u00a0 But their marriage isn\u2019t going to fail\u2014they\u2019re different! \u00a0Ditto a couple of guys starting a business.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re different; we see eye to eye on everything.\u00a0 \u2018Fifty-fifty,\u2019 that\u2019s us.\u00a0 We\u2019re buddies through and through, always have been!\u201d<\/p>\n

Until about six months later.\u00a0 Guess what?\u00a0 It turns out there is rarely such a thing as \u201cfifty-fifty.\u201d\u00a0 A \u201chundred-a hundred,\u201d maybe\u2014each person doing everything they can realistically do\u2014but not \u201cfifty-fifty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Realistically thinking not only about the dream of what can go right, but the nightmare of what can go wrong is a key to success.\u00a0 Realistically thinking about the talents, faults, potential contributions and character of the people involved is a key.\u00a0 Realistically thinking about a laundry list of other considerations and planning and implementing accordingly is a key.\u00a0 Not at the divorce lawyer\u2019s office; in advance.\u00a0 Such is the stuff of which greater success rates are made.<\/p>\n

It is important that you sit down with your potential business partner and undertake some realistic upfront thinking and planning. This work will pay great dividends in the future.<\/p>\n

Getting knowledgeable assistance from your experienced business attorney<\/a>, relatively inexpensive before the problems arise, usually pays great dividends\u2014in so many ways.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Neal J. Robinson 2010.<\/p>\n

Tarley Robinson, PLC, Attorneys and Counsellors at Law<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Williamsburg, Virginia<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Neal<\/a>
\n<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have often been struck by how much business counseling and marriage counseling can be alike.\u00a0 \u201cHe said he was really good at marketing and was going to handle all the sales.\u00a0 We haven\u2019t seen a worthwhile sale in months. \u00a0All he does is drive around, I GUESS making sales calls, but mostly just spending […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5,24],"tags":[167,14,154,16,117,169,168,170],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.tarleyrobinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.tarleyrobinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.tarleyrobinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tarleyrobinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tarleyrobinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tarleyrobinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2435,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tarleyrobinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions\/2435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.tarleyrobinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tarleyrobinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tarleyrobinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}