The other day I went to visit one of my ex business partners at an event he was producing.  He loves putting events together and marketing them.  I was happy to see him in his element. Guess who else was there? The 3rd partner. The 3 of us, together again like we used to be. It’s amazing to spend time together, sometimes joking about the past. But there’s a sadness that comes over me. Where would we be if we stayed together? Could I have something different go impact the outcome? I know God’s plans are greater than mine and we broke up for a reason, but I can’t help to wish we could go back to day 1….knowing what I know today. Coming into a relationship with God half way through our partnership definitely did help the partnership. It could have ended in a very bad way had I not implemented some of the things I’ve been teaching here. We entrepreneurs all have regrets, things we wish we could go back and change knowing what we know now, especially in our business partnerships. We can choose to harp on the past and let that depress us, or we can do the one secret I’ve found that helped me in my business partnerships and lets me be totally happy today even through the breakup. Most entrepreneurs have been in a difficult time in your partnership. Some of us have reached the brink of ending, some are just starting to experience some strife, and others of us are taking proactive measures to avoid even getting to these points. Wherever we’re at in our partnerships, God will do amazing things in and through you if we can do this…. God’s word says in Romans 8:26-28 "Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good." The spirit keeps us present before God. Why is this important? The secret to success in business partnerships lies more with the relationship between you and God than in changing your partners or circumstances. So if you’re focused on the situation you’re in or what’s in it for you in this partnership, then you’re doomed to continue along the same path you’re on. At this point you’re asking “Ok Alex, that’s awesome, but I can’t stand my partners and this sound like I have a lot of spiritual growing to do and I don’t have the time…I need a dose of something for today.” Here is the secret to being all your partners needs you to be… It is easy to put our own needs before the partnership, or to put business before God. It’s even possible to put “personal holiness” before following God and doing what He asks us to do for others. The greatest discoveries you can make as an entrepreneur is focusing on what God has already done for you. This is what makes you a more perfect partner. When you’re focused on God, you don’t care so much about what you’re getting out of the partnership. Instead, I believe and know, you care more deeply about what your partnership is receiving. I read a marriage book by Gary Thomas and in his book he asks asks, “What if God designed marriage not to make us happy, but to make us holy?” The fights that we experience with our partners are opportunities for us to lay down our own desires and serve someone else. Maybe that’s what God intended for business partnerships. When we do this, maybe we’ll experience radical growth we could never have imagined. My hope in writing ‘Fixing Business Partnerships Gone Wrong’ was for you to learn from my mistakes, realize God is in control, and focus on serving your partners like Christ served us. When I began to realize this concept and apply it to my partnerships, the relationship definitely improved. I’ve noticed positive changes in myself since being in partnerships. I believe great partnerships, in good times and in bad, teach us about keeping the focus on God and His love for others. Your Entrepreneur Compass, Alex Miranda. ——— #BusinessPartnerships #BuildMyPersonalBrand

When I got into my first business partnership we didn’t exchange vows or perform any ritualistic ceremony. We signed some papers at Bank of America and had lunch afterwards. That was it. There aren’t any “till death do us part” type of transactions between business partners.  But maybe there should be!  I know there are legal documents partners sign, but none go deep into what’s necessary to keep and grow a partnership. I propose there are 5 essential promises we should make as business partners. we’ll pursue each other: remember the convincing it took to even make them your partner?  Remember the wining and dining, the drinks at the bar, the things you did to sell the vision? We got to keep doing those things. we’ll keep one partnership: I don’t know what it’s like to be in two partnerships at the same time. If ONE was more work than I could handle, I came imagine two. You can ‘invest’ in other businesses, do joint ventures, dabble in real estate and trade stocks all at the same time…but its going to be challenging to have multiple proper business partnerships and a private life.  Something is going to fail. we’ll believe the best of each other: we’re all a piece of artwork being sculpted until the day we die. It means we’re going to be better tomorrow than today. Just because I didn’t like some of my partners traits today doesn’t mean I shouldn’t believe the best for him today. With this attitude, then I will treat him great today. If not, I’ll have anger and resentment towards him. we will be the definition of partners: first off, we signed a partnership agreement. That needs to always be honored. Second, we share equally in the work, success and failure. the partnership is my 2nd or 3rd priority:  after your relationship with God, the partnership with your spouse is next. If there’s no spouse, then you’re married to the business partners you’re with. And just like we give God priority in our lives, your partners get your priority. You pick up their calls always, ask how they are doing, care about them more than the business itself, and want to serve them wholeheartedly. Consider each of these promises as you work through the issues of your partnership. If you have problems today its likely because one or all of the promises above have not been addressed and/or kept. Imagine a world where we actually incorporate tangible ways to live out these promises.  Each represent areas of potential growth in the business partnership if you can master them. We might be strong in one or two, but there’s always improvements than can be made. Remember, we’re all sculptures being fashioned daily. #SharpenLeadership #BusinessPartnerships

I was very selfish in the first 5 years of my partnership. It was truly all about me and how I could benefit from the company. I used my Ivy League status, my interpersonal skills, and my sales ability to bully my way through decisions in the company. I cared about my partners, but to the extent in which it helped me. I loved my bros, but I loved myself more. I remember one of my partners reminding me constantly of my selfishness, but I didn’t see it. I thought I was the nicest guy ever…that’s what my mom told me! Although our partnership is over now, I wonder if things would be different had I known the things I know today. You see, what I’ve learned is that we are naturally selfish. We’re born selfish. It’s our instinct of survival to think of ourselves first. We all enter partnerships with a ‘what’s in it for me’ mentality. If we’re honest with each other, we all suffer from this selfish condition (if you don’t anymore, kudos!).  So how do we identify and remove this selfishness? What I’ve learned now that I wish I knew before is that there are 8 keys to removing selfishness and we can find them in the bible in Philippians 2:1-8. "If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care — then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human !  Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion." The keys are this: Agree with each other Love each other Be deep-spirited friends Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. This isn’t a call for you to lay down your visions, not lead, let yourself be abused, or not defend what you feel strongly about. The irony is that if you can follow the steps above, you’ll actually become even more powerful and influential in your partnership. You’ll be able to win your partners over to your vision much easier.  They will know your heart and trust you more. If all of us can be Christ in our partnerships, we’re truly living out the gospel in our businesses. #BusinessPartnerships #SharpenLeadership #GainConfidence

My partner and I have an 8:30 am call every Tuesday to connect and game plan.  It’s the best spent 30 minutes of the week. There isn’t always an agenda, but there’s always something to talk about. Last talk we identified a major hiccup in our process and I was able to fix it.  A previous call we simply talked about life and we vented out some frustrations that didn’t even have to do with work. Something I know now that I didn’t know back in my previous partnership was the need for regular meetings between the partners.  I would have meetings, but they weren’t intentional but more reactions to a certain crisis going on. In hind sight, this is probably the biggest reason we failed as a partnership.  I think we all felt lonely and that we each were running the company on our own.  If you asked each of us individually, you’d hear that the biggest weight of the company was on that person being asked. This lack of meeting caused distrust in the accounting, no single vision for the future, no way of venting and no clear leadership. What happens when we don’t meet regularly is that we’re not giving ourselves time to connect with one another. Connections are formed with time spent together.  I’m not talking about a company dinner with all the employees or going to happy hour with friends.  I’m talking about just the partners. Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 says "It’s better to have a partner than go it alone. Share the work, share the wealth. And if one falls down, the other helps, But if there’s no one to help, tough! Two in a bed warm each other. Alone, you shiver all night. By yourself you’re unprotected. With a friend you can face the worst. Can you round up a third? A three-stranded rope isn’t easily snapped." You might be at a point in your partnership where you just want to quit and do it alone. You figure that you’ve already been doing it alone, why not make it easier for everyone and just dismantle the partnership agreement. That’s not God’s design. I’d be surprised to find any hugely successful businesses out there that are 100% owned by one person only.  God’s design is for community to be formed and for one hand to wash the other. Pull out your calendar and set a weekly catch up meeting. This can be on the phone. Set up a monthly dinner where you talk in a relaxed environment. Then set up an annual planning meeting. You can do this quarterly, every 6 months or every year.  There is no such thing as connecting too much.  Things move so fast in business that the more we can communicate the faster we can grow. We can let our selfish pride, greed and ambitions rule our lives and make us a LONER in business, or we can choose to embrace the design of connecting with one another regularly. #BecomeDisciplined #SharpenLeadership #BusinessPartnerships

My partner and I would frequently get in email battles and heated arguments in front of employees. The biggest problems my partners and I had was not knowing how to communicate properly. Notice I didn’t say ‘a lack of communication’. I communicated a lot…I worked in the same small office. We all get into arguments with our partners. But what’s it all for? Can we even remember WHY the last argument started? The way to a restored and happy business partnership is through good communication, but we don’t know how to speak what matters, let alone to listen well and respond. The Bible says in Ephesians 4:29 "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen." God wants us to be great communicators by listening and really knowing your partners needs. I believe God wants us to 1) Think about this greater purpose next time you’re talking with your partners. 2)While most daily talk is simply to share information or discuss less-than vital decisions, try to be fully present with your business partners even when discussing the most mundane of details. 3) Make it a practice to share with each other when you’re stressed or excited about. 4) Make the goal of communication with your partners developing greater compassion for one another. What I learned over the years is that communication isn’t just the act of speaking.  Communication is also listening and empathizing its really a self-less act. We all start out born knowing how to communicate one way….cry to get fed. But if we want real change in our partnerships, we have to learn the other side of communication: listening. #BusinessPartnerships #ShareYourTestimony #EnhanceFocus

In 2008, just 3 years after starting my partnership, I began my spiritual revolution.  I grew up Catholic, and after confirmation I really didn’t have much interest in church. Like most boys growing up in Miami, the girls and nightclubs are more tantalizing to our souls. But in 2008 a friend of mine invited me to a Christian non-denominational church and I was hooked! I started growing in my relationship with God. My heart was changing, my thoughts were changing, and the way I viewed people and my business were changing. I’d like to tell you that my partners were happy for me and everything was peaches and cream, but nothing could be further from the truth. Because I was walking in one direction and the other was walking opposite, making business decisions became challenging. I was serving a new CEO above me that wanted things to be different. To please my partners, I sacrificed my new thoughts in hopes of keeping the peace and moving forward. I convinced myself that when its business, God is out, but for my personal life, I was going to grow with God. Essentially, I was living a double life. Sometimes in partnerships we’re put into situations where one person is a believer and the other isn’t.  Or maybe it’s two Christians, but one isn’t walking as close to God as the other. We begin to experience moral and ethical problems.  Business is like a marriage, and being married to someone that’s reading a different book can be challenging! So where do we go from here? Certainly we don’t just bow out and give up the business, right? We can’t just sacrifice all we’ve done to create the business, correct? God’s ways are different, contrariant in nature. The opposite is true. In fact, God wants you to get deeper into the business partnership, but He wants it done out of sacrifice to Him. Romans 12:2 says "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." This verse is TOP 5 verses of the Bible that I hold on to and live by every day.  Wherever we are at in our lives, God wants us to think like him and sacrifice the old ways in which we thought. The relational problems that arise from my business partnerships used to deeply trouble me until I wrapped my head around the concept of sacrificing everything I used to think in order to think like Jesus would. This helped me to see my partners not as ‘opposite’ of me, but as brothers that I love. You can choose to focus on your partners and the problems, or you can choose to focus on sacrificing your thoughts and replacing them with God’s thoughts. Let love shine through from God to your business, your partnership, your clients, your services, and your employees. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, genuine love is all about giving of oneself. However, the pattern of capitalism in the business world is selfish. If we’re conformed to it, we might try “sacrificing” to gain something, be it happiness, acclaim, self-worth, or in my case keeping peace with my partners. But true sacrifice involves giving up selfish desire for selfless love. Sacrifice in business requires balancing our hopes of success and wealth with the understanding that those hopes are not the focus. True sacrifice involves a greater goal than we gain personally or relationally. As Jesus’ life demonstrates, sacrificing must be about living to serve God, even as we seek to serve our business partners and others for him. #WorkLifeBalance #SharpenLeadership #BusinessPartnership

The first year or two of owning a business with my friends was so exciting!  We were kicking butt, hiring people, got a cool office on South Beach and doing work with some high profile clients.  We were 25 and 26 year old entrepreneurs starting an agency in Miami…doesn’t it sound like a movie?!?! Well, it was everything you can imagine plus more! One day something happened that started a heated argument between myself and one of my partners.  We exchanged abusive emails for 1/2 a day, even copying our 3rd partner in who had nothing to do with it. The emails got longer and longer, more bitter after each send. In the early days when I first started the business, I thought I would have a perfect partnership automatically. Oh boy was in for a ride for the next years. I knew at this point the honeymoon period was over. Remember MTV’s The Real World? I love how the opening statement goes:  ‘When people stop being fake and start becoming real’. That’s what happens in a partnership. We all enter in with high hopes and expectations from our partners, and almost certainly go through seasons of disappointed, let downs, back stabbing, gossiping, side-taking, finger pointing, verbal and even physical abuse. Experience tells us business partnerships are harder than we think. As we grow in clients and revenue, eventually, we realize our initial ideas about business and management aren’t realistic and something needs to change or someone needs to leave this partnership. The truth is that this disconnect in expectations is NOT A SURPRISE TO GOD.  You think he would make everyone different and not have lessons for us to break free from these great expectations? The bible says in 1 Corinthians 13:11 "When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me." In essence, Paul (the writer of Corinthians) is telling us that when our businesses were in their infancy, we thought one way. But now that the enterprise is growing, its time to put those thought behind because God has so much more in store for us. Our initial expectations must be replaced with biblical truth. Your business partner’s ideas about communication, conflict resolution, management of people, spirituality, job roles, time off, pay structure, accounting, and myriad other business things were determined long before you came on the scene. But most partners never deeply explore these concepts intentionally. I’m not an emotional intelligence expert and I don’t resolve conflict for partners for a living. I can only share my experiences both in marriage and in business partnerships (which are identical by the way). What I know is that there has to be a pow wow to let this concept of expectations be known and to explore ideas about how you connect with your partners. What areas of disagreement or difference do you have in connecting, communicating, and the list of other ideas I mention 2 paragraphs before? We can allow God to shape our great expectations for business in partnership so we can experience co-working in which God intended for us to interact and prosper. #TimeManagement #GainConfidence

In 2005 I formed a 3-way partnership with two of my really good friends.  One was a graphic designer, one was a website developer, and I was the Cornell University business graduate that was supposed to know what he was doing when it came to running a business. So naïve yet full of energy and excitement, the three of us desired to leave the corporate life and take control of our lives. We had visions of growing an agency full of the best creatives and doing amazing work for our clients.  The name of the company spoke our hearts desire: The Creative Complex. We sought to build, literally, a fun place to work with ping pong tables and games and a relaxed working atmosphere. We really did want it to work out….but…. You can probably fill in the story from here based on your experience in partnerships. We all desire one thing when we start, but things change. People change. Visions change.  Plans change.  Circumstances change.  We change.  And when you start making money, hearts change. So what happens when partnerships go bad? What can we do to bring them back to life?  How can we….just go back to when we first started? What I’ve discovered over repeated failed and successful partnerships is a key to cracking the partnership code. This key, when applied, can help unlock restoration and a renewed sense of hope in the business. Revelation 2:4 in the bible says "But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first!  Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lampstand and from its place among the churches." The key I’ve found is that we have to go back to the basics, back to why we started this, back to our first days of excitement. In your marriage, you reminisce on the dating, wedding and honeymoon and all of the sudden the fighting stops and there’s peace (for a little). It’s the similar concept in business. So here are some practical steps to going back. Re-reading the business plan together: Where you start in business largely determines where you’ll end up. You can make significant progress and possibly avoid conflict if you spend some time thinking about what you hoped for most at the start.  (And if you don’t have a business plan, well now you know why the partnership is failing.  How can we expect the business to fulfill our dreams and expectations if they aren’t articulated or well defined? Create a business plan together.) Dream brainstorm: after the meeting above, then dream together of the future.  See yourselves succeeding.  The Bible says God has plans for you to prosper.  This is true for your partnerships too! The process of investigating and sharing our deepest desires for business is on-going.  We need to make it a habit to do a periodic mental exploration together to think about the dream you had of what business would be like when you were starting. Add a RECURRING event in your calendar to at least have a yearly looking back meeting followed up by a looking forward meeting.  And if you can do it 2-4 times a year, EVEN BETTER!  The more we get to know each other and communicate, the better chance we have at restoring and strengthening our business partnerships. #DifferentiatingMyself #FindMyCalling

Balance means keeping all the parts of my life in their proper places In my business partnerships, what happened outside of the office would creep its way into the office and into the dynamics between me and my partners. If I partied too much, played too much golf, had a bad girlfriend, or focused on Crossfit too much, the business would see the effects of that eventually. Balance is one of my favorite words, probably because I have to work so hard to keep my life in balance. Businesses are negatively affected by partners who are living chaotic, unbalanced lives. In order for a partnership to run smoothly, all partners need to regain balance in their personal lives. Balance means keeping all the parts of my life in their proper places. It means giving priority to what matters most. For me, that means my relationship with God comes first, my family second, my business third. Business life really runs great for me when I prioritize this way; and it really can spiral downward quickly when I do not. Often life itself and the demands that come to me each day knock me out of balance, so I have to take many “time-outs” to make sure that I am in balance. The bible says Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. 2 Peter 3:17 NIV What does the balance in your business partnership mean to you? What are your priorities, and what prevents you from keeping them in the right order? Here’s a suggestion for balancing your business life: Write out your list of priorities in the order of importance to you. Then make a list of all the things that can get you off balance. Keep your lists together in a place where you will see them often. Make a habit of taking a “time-out” each week to look at your lists. I think by doing that, you will be amazed at how much easier it is to stay in balance with your partners. Taking a “time-out” to set priorities straight is important for regaining balance in your business partnership. Godpreneur Rule: Godpreneurs take “time-out” to add more balance to our lives! #BusinessBibleStudy #WorkLifeBalance #BusinessPartnerships

The reality is that a partner is not designed to meet every need—that job is already taken by God What would make me happy in a business partnership? I would want my partners to think and act like me. I would want them to be committed, hard-working, type-a personality, strong work ethic, willingness to learn and grow always, treat people well, and just be totally sold out to the cause. This would make me very happy! We’d have the perfect partnership and a real chance at making it big. Right? We all have painted a picture of the perfect partnership. Yours is likely different than mine, but you have expectations when entering a venture with someone. What happens when they don’t meet those expectations? What do we do when we’ve invested so much time and possibly even money into a partnership that is not meeting your expectations and you’re no longer happy. I’ve learned from God that I can’t put all of these expectations on business partners. It’s not right for me to think that my partner will be like me…they won’t. What if God designed business partnerships as a tool to actually reveal our need for Him? What is the very conflict I experience with my partners that was meant to help bring the partnership to a whole new level? The bible says But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV There was a time in business where I thought having a business partner was supposed to make me happier, less lonely, and less stressed because I would be splitting responsibilities. I was wrong! This thought killed my partnerships. Finally, I got it. I realized that my expectations had been unrealistic. In my business, if I looked at my partners to complete me – to make me happy – I would fail. There were times when they did make me happy, but not all the time. They are human and they make a lot of mistakes. Sometimes they hit home runs and sometimes they strikeout. The reality is that a partner is not designed to meet every need—that job is already taken by God. Expecting my partners to meet all my needs sets them up for failure. But if I let God meet all the needs that He wants to meet in my life, then that allows my partners to meet the needs He has designed them to meet in the business. That works. That is the way God designed it. Think about what you can do today to begin allowing God to meet the needs of your business that He wants to meet. #BusinessPartnerships #BusinessBibleStudy

I’m in a business partnership with another Godpreneur. It’s a beautiful thing because we go to the same church, we complement each other in the branding process, we bring God into our projects, and we’re both on the same page as to why we exist. But it wasn’t always this way for me. I was in a partnership before where we were NOT equally yoked. We both didn’t tap into the power of God, so there were weak spots in the partnership that eventually led to us going our separate ways. How do we get the most out of a Godpreneur partnership? How can we really do business God’s way as two or more people pursuing a venture? It comes down to making sure everyone is plugged into the source: the power of God. In my business, we have a number of electrical outlets. Many of them have the cords of electric lamps plugged into them. Behind those electrical outlets is all the power of our electric company. The amount of power that is there is incredible. But if I do not turn on a light switch, the office remains dark. With all that power, nothing happens until I do something. The same is true in your business partnerships. You have all the power of the God who created the universe. His power is endless. He designed partnerships in general and your joint venture in particular. He can make your business into something truly amazing, but you both have to invite Him in. The bible says: “And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work". 2 Corinthians 9:8 NIV God has a plan for your season together as partners. He has the answers that you do not have. He wants to be the center of your business deals. Are you allowing Him to do that? Or are there things that are keeping you from putting God at the center? Are you ready as a partnership to invite Him in and see what He will do? If so, there are some practical things you can do to get started: Find a good church and go—every week. If possible, go to the same church as your partner. Pray for your partnership and for each other every day. Keep it simple. You can pray together at the office or separately—just focus on the same things. Read the Bible together. You do not have to be Bible scholars. Pick a book and read a few verses together. Talk together about what you read. Lead a bible study together with other Godpreneurs. Who knows, God might have some Divine connections there. That’s it. Try these things for sixty days and see what happens. I promise you that God will show up. God wants to be a part of your venture together. Now is the time to begin to let Him do that. It will grow you closer to each other and to Him. Are you ready to see what God will do in your business? Godpreneur Rule: God shows up in business partnerships when both of you invite Him in. #BusinessPartnerships #BusinessBibleStudy Finding Purpose In Your Business Partnership You and your business partner are unique individuals and God is creative in the way He wants to use both of your gifts together. Heard of the Godpreneur Academy? Grow Your Business, God’s Way! Bible-Based Video Courses for Entrepreneurs Putting God First In their Businesses Click here to create a Free Account

As the guy people come to for logos and websites, I’ve met with many newly-formed business partnerships over the years. From realtors who came together to form a team, to lawyers that joined forces to complement one another’s services, I’ve learned a lot from these experiences to understand a bit about what it takes to succeed in a partnership. Far too many partnerships place the bar precariously low when choosing their standard for what they expect in business. This sets them up for failure. Lack of preparation before starting, fear of commitment, and disregard for God’s plan for how humans should deal with one another are all among the many things that help to lower the standard for business partnerships and fill the marketplace with more and more failed ventures. When partners arbitrarily choose how far they will carry their partnership commitments, they lower the standard for their business. A business partnership is such a serious, binding relationship, and every partner who desires a lasting and lucrative commitment must set a high standard for their joint venture that is in line with God’s design for two people coming together. I always say starting a business with someone is almost like marriage. God intended marriage to be a gift to us and something that we should cherish. But this gift is not to be taken lightly. We all know 1 Corinthians 13 as the verse read at a wedding, but that was actually written as a standard for Christians interacting with each other. Read this verse below keeping your business partner in mind: "[love] always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres". (1 Corinthians 13:7 NIV) A Godpreneur’s business partnership begins with a commitment to God and the person(s) you’ll be starting the business with. It is not a commitment for an hour, a day, a month, or a few years. It is a commitment for life! Well, that’s the way you should look at it. Why? Because that’s the mindset it takes to give 100 percent to your partnership. That’s the standard God desires for anything we do unto Him. It is saying that you will go through the entrepreneur roller coaster —together. It is saying that the group of you are committed—you, your partner(s), and God. It is having a no-quit attitude. It is being willing to fight for your partnership. If you can raise the bar and aim high for God’s plan for your partnership, the chances of your having a successful business are great. The highest standard for your partnership has already been set by God; reaffirm your commitment to that as your standard today! How can you purpose bring God into your business partnership? Leave a comment below. #BusinessBibleStudy #BusinessPartnerships Finding Purpose In Your Business Partnership You and your business partner are unique individuals and God is creative in the way He wants to use both of your gifts together. Heard of the Godpreneur Academy? Grow Your Business, God’s Way! Bible-Based Video Courses for Entrepreneurs Putting God First In their Businesses Click here to create a Free Account

I’ve been doing CrossFit since 2010. It’s a full-body workout that requires every ounce of your attention and commitment for a period. From beginning to end, you’re supposed to give it all. Workouts could be 7 to 25 minutes long…but it feels like hell when you’re in the middle of it. I’ve quit halfway through many times because I can’t take it. The times I quit, I feel terrible because I know I didn’t complete it. The times I finish it, I feel like I’m on top of the world. There’s a saying in CrossFit that goes “It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.” It’s the same philosophy and mindset when we’re trying to restore the relationship with our business partners after a period of fighting. Whether we’ve been fighting for hours or years, choosing to fight well and restore the union is the only way the business will succeed. When we’re in the middle of a fight with our business partners, and we’re looking to resolve that issue we have, it’s important to know that it’s easier to start the restoration process than to finish it. Halfway through, we want to quit. An issue will resurface that threatens the entire process and send us back into the crazy cycle. Or, even worst, we think we’ve resolved the issue when the problem is much deeper and more work needs to be done to uproot the problem, but we believe we are good to move on and keep running the business. The bible says: "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up". Galatians 6:9 NIV Don’t quit halfway through your recovery with your business partner. When a business partnership is in need of healing, you might think to work through conflict until the pain goes away, especially since there are a business to run and mouths to feed. Just make sure the deeper issues causing the trouble are corrected. We should not quit halfway through a resolving of a fight with our partners. With God’s help, we need to work on getting through the underlying problems, not just the pain they cause us and the business. #BusinessPartnerships #BusinessBibleStudy Finding Purpose In Your Business Partnership You and your business partner are unique individuals and God is creative in the way He wants to use both of your gifts together. Heard of the Godpreneur Academy? Grow Your Business, God’s Way! Bible-Based Video Courses for Entrepreneurs Putting God First In their Businesses Click here to create a Free Account

My brother passed away in 2008. He was 33, and I was 28. I was at the beginning of my entrepreneurial career. Life has been dramatically different since that day. The loss of my brother meant that partnership was over and new bonds would need to take its place. My business partners may know a lot about me. The question is: do they really understand me? As partners in business, we may have our facts straight about the person we’ve teamed up with, but knowing them on a deep level is where God wants – no – needs us to be. The bible says: "Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn". Romans 12:15 NIV If you’re not careful to understand your partner emotionally, you could be missing out on opportunities for tremendous growth and progress because you fail to see why they make decisions and what makes them tick. Do my partners really understand how my brother’s death affects me, even today? Do they know moments in business that remind me of him and how it affects my decision-making? If a tear comes to my eye, will they be compassionate with me? Many of us Godpreneurs in partnerships experience conflict because we treat events in our partner’s lives as facts about them. But we don’t truly understand out those moments have shaped their lives and impact their behavior in business even today. We need more than acknowledge our partners pain from a distance. Imagine if all of us Godpreneurs in partnerships were compassionate like the Lord, present with them in the midst of the emotional challenges from their past that affect the business today. #BusinessPartnerships #BusinessBibleStudy Finding Purpose In Your Business Partnership You and your business partner are unique individuals and God is creative in the way He wants to use both of your gifts together. Heard of the Godpreneur Academy? Grow Your Business, God’s Way! Bible-Based Video Courses for Entrepreneurs Putting God First In their Businesses Click here to create a Free Account

My partner and I used to get into huge fights that would last several days and span over a dozen emails. Our tirades were like an intense volley of ping pong, each hit becoming more intense as the argument picked up momentum. Eventually, one of us would begin to feel terrible about the whole incident and offer a truce so there would be peace again in the business. Every business partnership experiences conflict, but for problems to get resolved, someone has to be willing to go first in bringing the peace. Let’s be real; it’s in an entrepreneurs nature to see someone else jump first before we make a move. We need the sense of security more than others do. In business partnerships, this is especially true because we’re so focused on our partner’s behavior more than our own (read my previous blog post). So how can we develop the habit of always being the partner that will swallow their pride, look in the mirror, and be the first to bring the peace? With God’s help, of course. The bible says: "You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye". (Matthew 7:5 NIV) God’s always going to bring it back to you, the person of you, your own strengths and weaknesses, and your own salvation. God will handle your partner, He wants you to handle you. Why? Because of a thing called “The Crazy Cycle” that I learned in the book love and respect. Does this sound familiar: your partner admits that he doesn’t come to the office because you start micromanaging. You, on the other hand, start micromanaging your partner’s efficiency because he’s never in the office. See the crazy circular cycle? Each partner is blaming the other rather than taking responsibility for their own behavior. It’s a death cycle that kills business partnerships and takes down the whole company with it. Godpreneurs, we only have one solution: we must always be the first ones to jump in and offer the peace. We must stop the cycle and keep the ship moving towards the purpose of the business partnership in the first place. If our business partnerships need help, let’s not work on changing our partners. Instead, by God’s grace, we must consider what we can do to move our business partnerships in a positive direction. We’ll be surprised at the difference we can make when, as Godpreneurs, we take the first step. #BusinessBibleStudy #BusinessPartnerships Finding Purpose In Your Business Partnership You and your business partner are unique individuals and God is creative in the way He wants to use both of your gifts together. Heard of the Godpreneur Academy? Grow Your Business, God’s Way! Bible-Based Video Courses for Entrepreneurs Putting God First In their Businesses Click here to create a Free Account