Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa April 2014 | Page 66

LESSONS

BY DENISA OOSTHUIZEN

The human dynamic
How to build strong business relationships

B

usinessman and author Colin J. Browne
shares the lessons learned from his earlier
days as a co-partner in the successful business
venture SalesGuru, launched in 2005.

Building a strong business partnership is a
process of a lifetime, a never-ending process.
We tend to treat it as a project, like “finding the right
partner” instead of taking it as it is.

If you look back and connect the dots, you will
probably find people in your life about whom you
wonder what they are up to now, or where they are in
their lives.
As long as you are meeting new people, looking for
new ideas, partnerships tend to happen by accident.
They really do. If you actively go out looking for a
partner, chances are that you will struggle to find
someone who fits in with your plans.

that in our partnership. It was always a matter of what
needs to be done, and who needs to do it. Trust is vital.
Beyond that, you learn the dynamics of partnerships
over time. You cannot know what will happen from the
start.

You will most probably find a venture capitalist with
money, or an investor. If you want someone who is
more like you and understands you, it will probably not
happen deliberately.

In any partnership there are arg uments and
disagreements, no matter what. You have to be able

I believe that having different skills is probably the
most important criterium in choosing a business
partner. That was why it worked out with our business,
SalesGuru.
My two partners and I had different skills: they
were strong in operations and sales, while I was very
good with the content for the magazine SalesGuru.
Otherwise, I do not think we would have succeeded in
growing the business. in terms of the way you regard
teamwork, work ethic, and the way you trust and are
trusted by others.

Work ethic is essential. If you have a partner about
whom you constantly feel the need to ask “are you going
to do that or not?”, you have a problem. We never had
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April 2014 SA Real Estate Investor

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to be honest with one another.

You have to be prepared to know that when people are
brutally honest, you are not always going to like what
you hear. Sometimes there will be things that you do
not really want to hear.

You have to be able to hand le mat ure
conversations. “This is what I agree with; this is what

I do not agree with”. You have to accept the others’
point of view. If you cannot do that, you will not be able
to go anywhere with the partnership.
We are all human beings with own issues, but we have
to be able to have these conversations. That said, we
cannot know for sure how things will turn out. Do your
best, and keep learning in the process.

RESOURCES

www.wealthwisemag.com
www.reimag.co.za