Those who have survived bad partnership in business, when asked how they could have avoided the problems that brought their relationships to a crashing end, usually reply that the best solution would have been never to have gotten involved with that person (those people) in the first place.

However, to avoid all business partnerships would result in a huge loss of collaboratively generated power that can act to propel a business from a standstill to a real income-generating initiative. Good partnerships can be a boon, can result in valuable learning, and can provide the synergy whereby the whole is vastly greater than the sum of its parts.

Bad partnerships can leave a wake of destruction far beyond the business detritus after the end has come. Your husband, your best friend, your sister, your mother, your cousin, your college roommate, or book club pal could be a great help to you and to your business. On the other hand, you may ask yourself one day, “What was I thinking?” Please don’t assume that love, friendship, family ties or obligations are sufficient foundation on which to build a business relationship. In fact, it is often those very emotional areas that are the hidden landmines.

At the Women’s Enterprise Centre of Manitoba, we see all manner of partnering experiences along the continuum of great to awful. There are a few questions we suggest our clients ask themselves when considering bringing in a partner, whether at start up or to kick start a company.

Some of the most successful growth businesses have been formed and developed through strategic partnerships. The key here is the ‘strategic’ part. Think, analyze, test, talk it through, think best and worst-case scenarios. Ask the tough questions, and then, if you think the benefits far outweigh the potential traps, and the risk is worth the reward, form a legal partnership that provides for win-win benefits, whatever the outcome.

Posted by Sandra Altner at 11:38 AM 1 Comments

Tags Women’s Enterprise Centre of Manitoba  partnerships  business partnerships  shareholders agreement  partnership agreement 

Every month at the Women’s Enterprise Centre, we take an hour out of a Thursday afternoon and dedicate it to our Business Book Club. The rules are that all staff may participate, only in doing so they are obligated to read, present, discuss and prepare notes on any business-oriented book of their choice at least once during the year. Refreshments are served, responsibility of the presenter. Today it was papadams and crunchy veggies.

I initiated this Book Club for solely selfish reasons. My work-related business reading pile is beginning to resemble a well-known edifice in Pisa, and I felt that this would be the impetus to choose some good specimens to read and present with deadlines and expectations attached. Other staff have similar architecturally shaped challenges and agreed that this would be a great project that would benefit all. A positive sideline could be that if we loved (or hated) the book, we could blog about it and further vent our delight (or disgust).

I’m happy to report that this month’s presentation had delight on every page. Keith McFarland’s Breakthrough Company How Everyday Companies Become Extraordinary Performers (Three Rivers Press 2008) was not only a good read, it was full of well-researched information about what major attributes characterize growth-oriented companies. Only two years old, this book has already become a major resource of biblical proportions to thousands of small wannabe BIG businesses, teachers, business support programs, business school students, CEOs and business developers.

McFarland has an easy-to-read style that incorporates vignettes and case studies developed through assiduous research, interviews, surveys and literature reviews. The reader doesn’t feel, however, as if he or she is reading an academic study. Far from it; although the research is substantive and well presented, the real heart of the book is about qualitative, rather than quantitative findings. It isn’t about financial statements and balance sheets, those are the assumed infrastructure of good business management. Instead, the key to breakthrough thinking appears to be about companies with character and leaders with charisma. It’s about crowning the company and not the CEO. A good deal of emphasis is placed on believing in people and hiring for attitude while training for aptitude.

The Breakthrough Company is a very wise book, full of insights and revelations. My copy is so heavily underlined, the pages tagged and notes inserted, that I dare not lend it out for fear that some gem may be lost if one of the notes falls out (a lendee’s child, dog, significant other might not treat it as the precious object it is –thus requiring stern measures and possible loss of friendship or even sibling connection). So I’m going to authorize some extra copies at the Centre, untouched by human pen, without folded pages or small pink and green flags, for everyone to read, digest and discuss. We will all be better business advisors for it.

Posted by Sandra Altner at 11:33 AM 0 Comments

Tags Breakthrough Company  business advisors  Women’s Enterprise Centre  Keith McFarland 

Over the past eight years, Western Economic Diversification Canada has commissioned three studies to show the impact that the Women’s Enterprise Initiative (which includes the Women’s Enterprise Centre of Manitoba, Women Entrepreneurs of Saskatchewan, Alberta Women Entrepreneurs and Women’s Enterprise Centre of BC) has had on women entrepreneurs across the West. Tracey Scarlett, CEO of Alberta Women Entrepreneurs, used the information from these studies as the foundation for a paper she presented at the Diana Conference in Banff. In it, she noted the increasing sophistication and growth in our collective client base over time.

The findings in Manitoba echo the Alberta information: growing businesses require expansion capital and a more sophisticated and knowledgeable advisory capacity.

Overall, the major impacts of return on public investment (20:1), incremental return on loan dollars (30:1), 8000 person years of employment, and 75% of loan clients that survive the critical first five years attest to the effectiveness of the initiative.

Posted by Sandra Altner at 3:49 PM 0 Comments

Tags Diana Conference  Tracey Scarlett  impact study  women-owned businesses  Western Economic Diversification Canada  Women’s Enterprise Centre of Manitoba 

Today was both exhausting and exhilarating – trying to be in two places at one time in order to hear speakers in areas that were of particular interest to me: Financing, Networks, and Impact Assessment. More and more business service providers are discovering how valuable academic research can be. The scientific approach to gathering and analyzing data, while seemingly abstract, can result in outcomes with practical application in the world of business development and support. Our WEC-Tech program is a good example; it was inspired by research done in the US examining how women business owners adopt and utilize technology.

Similarly, the projects we are developing based on the hands-on work with women entrepreneurs provide areas of further study for our academic colleagues. Tracy Scarlett, CEO of Alberta Women Entrepreneurs, presented a paper outlining the evolution of the Women’s Enterprise Initiative (WEI) in western Canada. The foundation of the paper was the impact studies that have been carried out over the years to measure the success of the initiative. This was of particular interest to practitioners from Europe and the UK whose varied funding models and approaches differ from the Canadian model. Our results were seen to be highly estimable. A good part of our networking at the conference was with women business support practitioners whose work in other countries, often under more difficult circumstances, provided a two-way learning opportunity. Of particular note were the wonderful women of Train 2000 from Liverpool, who are building an incubator for women business owners in the north of England.

The conference not only presented intellectual challenges (these academic papers really stretch the brain), but the location tested our physical and directional abilities as well. The Banff Springs Hotel, built in the latter part of the 19th century, was modeled on a Scottish baronial castle. There have been renovations to the original buildings that have created a warren of confusing stairways and halls that never seem to lead where one expects. My room, in the renovated section, always seemed to be in a different place, reached by two banks of elevators, a series of up and down staircases, and long stretches of carpeted corridors, some of which decanted into cul-de sacs and dead ends. Elegant, but decidedly difficult terrain to manage, especially if one has had a glass of wine at dinner. Having said that, however, it should be noted that the venue was a wonderful accommodation with a spectacular view of the mountains and excellent service.

Now the real work starts: I brought back a pile of books and papers to peruse, ideas to consider, a dozen people to connect with for ongoing discussion and plans to meet again to continue our dialogues and to share projects and programs that can benefit all of our clients.

Posted by Sandra Altner at 10:40 AM 0 Comments

Tags women entrepreneurs  women business owners  Diana Project  Diana Conference 2010  Train 2000  Alberta Women Entrepreneurs  

I’m at the Diana International 2010 Research Conference in beautiful Banff, Alberta. It’s a small gathering of about 80 delegates from 21 countries, gathered to discuss the latest research and practices on women’s entrepreneurship. This is primarily an academic conference, the sixth of its kind since the inception of the Diana Project (now Diana International) in 1999.

I wangled an invitation to this sterling event for two reasons:
In recent years, there has been increasing effort to bring academics and practitioners together so that they might derive mutual benefit from applying academic research to real-world situations. As practitioners, we may be able to inform and inspire some further research based on our own grassroots experiences with women entrepreneurs. From what I can see, this is a very healthy and worthwhile development. The women I’ve met so far are interested in both academic and service provision projects, and are open to sharing information.

The real work starts today! Approximately 50 papers will be presented on topics ranging from “The Influence of Venture Capital on Investing in Women-Led Businesses” to “Combining Love Life and Work Life: The Effect of Copreneurship on Firm Performance and Satisfaction in Business and Family”.

In between there is, of course, the great networking and sharing that goes on at breaks and meals – the real gold to be found in these gatherings. I’ve spoken to women from eastern Canada, Australia, the States and the UK and have marveled at their work, their experiences and the wisdom they have to offer that will, I hope, ultimately work its way into the work we do in Manitoba to support our own growing woman business-owner network.

More to come.

Posted by Sandra Altner at 12:14 PM 0 Comments

Tags women entrepreneurs  women-owned business  Diana Project  venture capital  copreneurship