A good project partner is hard to find, which is why entrepreneurs usually go about their way alone.  Whether your project is a book, a website or a business, working in solitude has its bonuses, sure. It’s less risky than depending on someone else, easier to manage and control the project and it means that any rewards reaped are yours alone. But, as with every risk, comes a benefit and project collaboration can pay off more than you may think.

Why Collaborate? The Pros of a Project Partner…

Saves time, money and energy: With the right project collaboration comes a quicker, more focused result because multiple partners are working on the projects and not just one.

Keeps you focused: Having someone else believing and depending on you and the work you’re doing will make you more motivated to keep up the work. Sometimes just believing in what you do is enough, but for those hard days when persistence and passion is work, it’s always helpful to have someone else with a similar deadline.

You can confide in your team members: With collaboration comes someone to share and (if you chose well) potentially solve the problems you face within the project as well as sharing the glory with in times when times are going well.

A project partner is a back up: They can keep the project going when it’s not possible for you to, meaning that you won’t have to be cooped over a laptop on your holidays or face a mountain of to-do’s when you come home.

Gain new perspectives and ideas: different people have different knowledge’s and field’s. The more minds put together, the broader your project and the more it will reach out into the wide world.

But of course it’s important to consider the people you choose to help you in your work because not every person will have the qualities required for your project. It’s important to bear in mind that you can have too much or too little of the same thing.

The list below will help with this if you’re in the process of considering candidates for a project collaboration, reviewing an existing collaborator or looking to become a good/better choice for a candidate yourself.

What Makes A Good Project Partner?

1) Someone with a similar passion as you (e.g. self-development) but a different talent or field (e.g. technology and writing) this is important if your aim is to cover a wider perspective in your topic, thus a wider audience or market.

2) Someone with something you don’t have, who can form a combination of in our case a creative (me) and logical minded (Joe) team. Try to balance these two aspects in order to gain ideas that are unique to others, but have the mind-set behind them to funnel these thoughts and make them a reality. The best of both worlds you could say.

3) Someone of equal passion and sacrifice. The main troubles that are caused within collaboration are unequal divisions of time, money and energy. Cut these problems at the bud and find a partner who you know from the start understands that equal recognition, requires equal work i.e. you get what you earn.

4) Someone who will see you as valuable. Who will recognise and respect your strengths and weaknesses and are able to adapt to these attributes. This is important, because the ability to make democratic decisions in a collaboration is the difference between a successful and willing team, and one that is not.

5) Someone who you can talk too. This means a relationship that’s informal enough to share your views and concerns, but formal enough that if something went wrong in the relationship work could proceed as normal. 80% business and 20% pleasure. A best friend, a boyfriend, a sister is probably not the best of choices, although there are a few cases, Saira Khan and her husband for example, who would disagree.
Conclusions: Always be looking, in the most unlikely of places…

Finding the right project partner is a difficult process. It requires both an ability to logically think your project through and the heart to locate people who have the same passions alike. But it’s something that should be deeply considered before the work begins in order to ensure that the leap won’t be a wrong one.

There will always be a risk joining forces with another person. Life is unpredictable that way. But there are also risks with working alone and if you find the right project partner, the benefits reap themselves. One Life Success is proof of that.

But to keep things going, the fate of the team relies on you being a good project partner too. So although we all roll our eyes at Monday morning team building tasks, it’s important that you gain a good grasp upon the skills of communication within any work you do. This is a skill often neglected in terms of the field of entrepreneurs. Never underestimate the people around you, you can find inspired minds in the most unlikely of places.

Good Luck!

What are your experiences of project collaboration and working with project partners? Let us know in the comments below!

Wrote by Aimee Hall