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January Feature
Business Partnership is a 'Marriage' of the Minds
Fleur-de-lis owners Josephine Mero (left) and Martha Loomis work together to provide an appealing experience to those who enter the store. Photo credit: PBJ.
By Nicholas Sergi
“I think it’s much more about the quality of the relationship.” So says George Fowler, and it may sound like he’s talking about a marriage. Actually, Fowler is an independent small business consultant based in New York City, and he’s talking about the core facet that makes a small business venture by two partners work. “A business partnership is a marriage. It’s best if they know each other well before they form such a partnership.”
To underscore his point, Fowler added that “you have to know yourself, and you have to trust that your partner knows himself or herself,” which includes trusting your partner’s level of commitment and that each person will bring his or her contacts to the table. Fowler also believes it’s important that a partnership, surprisingly, should not be completely equal. “Someone should be able to make a final decision” if something should go awry in the relationship.
At Arrival, a Stroudsburg shop that specializes in skateboards, snowboards and related clothing and accessories, the partners are three friends who combined their skills and their passion. Each partner fills his own niche. While all three can alternate running the day-to-day transactions in the store itself, Aaron Rude handles the accounting, Hans Ziegler focuses on buying the merchandise, and Mike Kijewski spends time off-site nurturing potential business contacts.
“Everything [about the partnership] is written down,” says Ziegler, who adds that their friendship and common purpose is the foundation of the company, with each one having his defined role.
Arrival offers products to “kids who don’t gravitate to team sports and would rather pursue something that is not as structured, where they can do their own thing and make their own path,” notes Ziegler.
Josephine’s Fleur-de-lis, a small business located in Stroudsburg, is run by Josephine Mero (at photo in left) and Martha Loomis (photo, right) who consider themselves equal partners with the same vision for their shop, which offers one-of-a-kind gifts.
Loomis says what makes their partnership work is that each one has a trio of skills they bring, all of which have been essential to success. Mero, who worked to convert what was once a deli into a store of ornate gift items, serves as the buyer, the merchandiser (arranging the gift items to make them “appealing to the customer,” according to Loomis), and the designer.
Loomis’s expertise lies in more business-related concerns: marketing, operations, and community relations. Whenever possible, she says, “We let each other do what we do best.”
For more on Startups and Partnerships see the January2009 edition under
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PBJ is distributed throughout our community.
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Now in January 2009: Available by subscription or call (570) 421-0100
PBJ's Startups and Partnerships issue
Business Partnerships: What Works?: Experts advise on how to run a successful collaboration
Men Who Have Made An Impact: Key movers and shakers in the four counties
Family Ties, Family Businesses: How and when to put business first
Ten Things New Pocono Businesses Need to Know: Getting the best help possible in 2009
Professional Profile: Partnering Spells Success at Elevations Health Club in Scotrun
Coming
Next Month...February 2009:
PBJ's Finding Opportunities in the Current Market issue
Job Creation Takes Turn for the Green: Carbon County about to explode on green scene
While You Wait: What you can (and should) strengthen now, before the economic bounceback
Making Workforce Development A Reality: Monroe-based business leader has plans to bring schools and business together
Professional Profile: Finding opportunities in the written word at Books and Prints (Milford) and Main Street Books (Hawley)
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