Page 188 - The $100 Startup_ Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love

The shoot went really well, and I produced what I consider to be some very
strong work. All was well until we were on a rural road far from any city or
airport. While we were driving along, the client demanded copyright of the
images—not part of the deal as far as I was concerned—and threatened to have
me detained at a remote border in a politically unstable nation unless I handed
them over. Not wanting to sample the hospitality of the local gendarmes, I
conceded and lost some of the strongest images I had shot to date. I learned my
lesson, though: Next time, be sure to get the paperwork done first.

Partnership: How 1 + 1 = 3

One path to franchising yourself is to team up with a trusted partner. This doesn’t
mean you completely merge your business with that person; in fact, the easiest
and most common way to partner with someone is to create a joint venture. In
this arrangement, two or more people join forces to collaborate on a single new
project. (Karol and Adam’s “fire sale” project, described in Chapter 8, is a joint
venture.)

In other arrangements, an all-new business is created that is jointly owned by
the partners. That’s what Patrick McCrann and Rich Strauss did. They were both
high-end performance coaches for athletes and decided to team up to create
Endurance Nation, a training program and community for triathletes. They
divide responsibilities on the basis of what they’re each good at. Patrick calls all
the new members on the phone to welcome them, and Rich crafts an online
training plan for them.†

However it’s structured, the goal of a partnership is to grow beyond what each
person can create on his or her own. Ralf Hildebrandt operates an international
professional services firm based in Stuttgart, Germany. Here’s how he explains
why 1 + 1 can equal 3: “My rule of thumb is that a successful partnership (or any
type of collaboration) should create a combined business which is at least 33
percent larger than the sum of what the two individuals could achieve on their
own.

“People are often inclined to think that distributing work to a few others is
what partnership is about,” Ralf continued. “But that is just subcontracting. True
partnership must create more than just a divided list of tasks.”