Partnerships can be a great asset to your business. These could be silent or active partners. Also, these do not need to be people. A business can provide a service that is more cost-effective to us than doing it yourself.
Silent Partnerships
These would be partnerships that would provide you with something but not take an active role in your business. One of the easiest examples would be with founding. A person would provide funding for your business in turn they would be a partner in it with you as they have bought into your idea. Many times these are people that are doing a lot and want to help you but they do not have the time to help.
Active Partnerships
These are the people that are working the business with you. They might have helped with the idea to get it going. Or they provide something that they do the best. I know of people that have started a business in the IT space and it was a great idea but they did not have the programming skills so they found someone that did. This allowed them both to have big roles in the business.
Others
This would be using other companies to help you instead of added to your team. Such as hiring using job boards or for HR there are companies that do that for smaller companies. The great part about this is that you do not have to be great at everything you can hire a company to do the things you need as well. I also think about legal and how there are companies that will write a contract for you and you do not have to have a legal department.
Partnerships can be a big benefit for your business. I know that I did not cover all or even most but this is a great place to start. Thinking about these at the beginning of your business can change how fast your business grows. Here is an article that goes into more legal detail about these two partnerships (click here).
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Wesley