Over the past few months I have been involved in a new business venture. I joined in with a few other guys to start evolving a gym and growing it to multiple facilities. After a few months and no real progress that venture is coming to an end. There were some discrepancies and disagreements amongst the partnership which were the cause of our early breakup and lack of success. From this whole experience I have learned a few things about business, marketing, and managing. However, there is one thing I learned that will determine all future business decisions.
When going into business with others, make sure that everyone has similar thought processes. With my recent partnership, there were three different partners with three very different mindsets. Not only with business but also with training and facility management. When there are three people with three different belief systems, it makes it almost impossible to move forward with total agreement. Small things become big things and then it just causes frustration and distress.
Before starting up a business or joining in on an existing business, all the factors must be looked at first. What are the other partners training philosophies? How do they run the gym compared to how you would like to have things ran? Do they have the same integrity as you? What kind of direction are the other partners wanting to take the business and is that the same direction as where you want to go?
Ask these questions before you join into a business of any kind. I failed to look at these issues and got rushed up into the excitement of owning a studio and it ended without any success. But even without success I was still able to learn and get a new light on where I want to be in a few years down the road.
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