E621 | Two Partnerships That Actually Work

In this episode, Doc Danny shares insights about partnering and choosing the right business partner. Drawing from his experience working with over 200 businesses within the PT Biz mastermind, he emphasizes the importance of identifying whether a potential partner is operational or strategic.

An operational partner should have complementary skills to the existing partner, while a strategic partner should have experience in the area of business the partner is looking to start. 

Danny recommends the book Rocket Fuel by Gino Wickman and suggests taking the Rocket Fuel Test to determine if one is a visionary or an integrator. He cautions against partnering with someone who is too similar to oneself, as this can lead to conflict and a lack of implementation. Danny also stresses that breaking up a legal partnership is difficult and rarely ends well.

If you're considering a business partnership, this episode is a must-listen. Dr. Danny provides invaluable advice on how to choose the right business partner and the importance of compatibility and complementary skillsets. Tune in now to learn more!

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Podcast Transcript

Danny: Hey, real quick before we get started, head over to Facebook and join the PT entrepreneurs Facebook group. If you haven't done so yet, we have monthly live trainings going on there. There's an opportunity for you to join in the conversation instead of just listening to what I have to say on this podcast, as well as the people that I bring on.

And it's a really cool place to join about 6, 000 other clinicians that are. Honestly, trying to change the landscape of our profession through these cash and hybrid practices. One other thing that's really cool is we have a guide in there. That's a quick start guide. When you join, you can go and check this out.

There's about seven videos that we've curated that are the most common questions we get in the best case studies that we've found to really help you start, grow, and scale your practice up to seven figures. So if you haven't done so yet, head to Facebook request to join the PT entrepreneurs, Facebook group.

You have to be a clinician. We're going to check you out. We don't just let anybody in. But if you are head there, go ahead, get signed up. We'd love to have a conversation with you in that group.

So here's the question. How do physical therapists like us who don't want to see 30 patients a day, who don't want to work home health and have real student loans, create a career and life for ourselves that we've always dreamed about? This is the question. And this podcast is the answer. My name is Danny Matei and welcome to the PT entrepreneur podcast.

What's going on guys, Zach Danny here with the PT entrepreneur podcast. And today we're talking about partners. Talking about business partners in particular and the two types of business partners that I think make the most sense. And I bring this up because I, at this point, or I'm working with over 200 businesses within our mastermind just alone, not including any of our other programs.

And these are, this is a group that I have a lot more sort of direct conversations with. And I get just a lot of, I see a lot of trends with this group because I can look at what questions we're getting asked, what problems we're solving and really project forward what a lot of people are going to have to deal with and hopefully help solve those problems for them, in a very proactive manner versus being reactive.

One of the things that I've seen more and more really comes down to partnerships and the, should somebody take on a partner? Should somebody start a business with a partner? Should somebody how should somebody set those things up? What are the different structures for that? And this is very complex and there's a lot of different variables that you can do with this.

But what I think is the most important thing to think about is, do you know, do you need a partner and what? What's the right fit for a partner? And I think there's two fits that make a lot of sense. One, I would consider like a operational partner. So let's say you are, you have a business, you've started a business and you're growing and you, maybe you're really good at the forward facing stuff, sales and marketing, or you're great at getting out in the community and driving business or whatever, man, you're, you suck at the back end, like you're really bad at the operational side of things.

Looking for somebody, and maybe this is one of your clinicians, and maybe this is not to be an operational partner, I think is really important to help you grow. And for me, the operational partner I had with Athlete's Potential was my wife, right? We were partners in a lot of other ways before we started a business together.

And it just so happened that she is a very integrator driven... type of person. She's very organized. She's very systems driven. She's good at creating processes around things management of of staff and organization of all of that. And it was a great compliment to me. And one of the mistakes that I see with partners, people that partner with somebody is that they partner with somebody just like themselves.

So it would be like me partnering with. Another version of me, that would have been a catastrophe. And the reason why is because we would have just gotten each other really excited about something and then really probably never actually implemented anything, or we would have done way too much of the wrong stuff because we would have acted way too fast.

And to have somebody that's more methodical and slows you down, is very important. So if you look at partnering with someone, I always recommend the book rocket fuel by Gina Wickman. There's even a test you can, I think it's called a rocket fuel test that you can take. And you'll find out if you're a visionary or an integrator and one sounds cooler than the other, but I'm telling you, they're both just as important.

Regardless of your event, a integrator, or if you're a visionary, whatever it might be, but two visionaries probably don't really need to be partnering up on something because they're going to overlap. They're going to step on each other's toes to integrators probably shouldn't partner up on something.

So something to think about really comes down to, is that person the right fit? And that is what I consider like an operational partner. So just cause somebody is a great clinician and they're they're killing it with the. And the patient volume they have or something like that doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to help the business grow, right?

They might just be somebody that is a great, asset to the business and they can make a great income and they can potentially, maybe they partner on a smaller scale or something like that as a Opportunity to keep them and have them take on additional roles within the business as you grow.

But if you're really looking at a true partner and somebody that's going to share the burden of the business with you, you need somebody that's going to offset your skillset. The other part is what I would consider a strategic partner. So a strategic partner is someone that's already done what you're trying to do and can help your business in some way.

So for, to me, this really looks like a very, organized mentorship opportunity. So strategic partners, if you can think of it this way, let's say you're you're trying to build a CPA company or something like that, right? Let's say you're a CPA and you want to build a CPA firm and you can find somebody that's already built a CPA firm.

And they're willing to have a very direct relationship with you and really in a very direct advisory role and help out with the business and share resources and help grow that business without being directly involved on the day to day side, but in a minority role. That could be a really valuable thing.

I've seen this now with a handful of friends of mine that have started different types of businesses. And what they've been able to do is really shortcut the start of a business. This is something that is is much harder to find than an integrator in a visionary working together. But if you can find this strategic partner that is interested in a minority, stake in the business, but can really accelerate the start by making sure that you're doing all the right things and potentially.

Help offset some of the client acquisition side of things that you're going to need to do, then you can be off to the races way faster. And the start of a business, really the first couple of years of a business is where it is most susceptible to failure. So if I look at it more like these strategic partnerships are almost like.

Insurance for the business. You're basically paying for insurance, for the business, for somebody that's already done what you're trying to do already has a lot of connections in that in arena, whatever it might be, and can potentially help really get that thing scaled up much faster to a safe place so that the likelihood of the business failing is much lower and it mitigates a lot of that risk.

So much harder to find. And typically that's somebody that's more of a, a seasoned entrepreneur that is not looking to basically get heavily involved in starting anything directly, but can be very beneficial in actually bringing that business up to speed faster and getting, making sure it gets to the place where you're trying to go.

So think of that more like business insurance versus the other person is more of a boots on the ground partner. That's helping build the actual business. So before you get into a partnership, the very first thing you need to think about is do I actually need this? Does this person have? Either a strategic skill set that's going to help me get where I want to go because it already done it and they have unique connections and and knowledge associated with that, or does this person have opposing skills to me that is going to compliment me as well as you're going to compliment that person and you guys are going to be able to build something bigger, faster, and and be able to impact more people through that.

That's the kind of partnership that I think most people really need to look for versus the biggest mistake that I see is people just partnering with people just like them and then getting frustrated and then they have to break that up. And it is a very difficult thing to do. Let me Be, very straightforward beyond that.

If you're legally involved with somebody, you have to break that up. That's not the easiest thing to do. It's very similar to breaking up a legal marriage. You have to get lawyers involved. It's expensive. It's slow. It usually doesn't end with both people super cool each other. So something to think about as you get involved, this is something you need to take have a lot of thought with and make sure that it's the right fits either operationally makes a lot of sense.

They offset your skillset. They make, you just make each other stronger. Or strategic, where that person can basically drag you to where you're trying to go with more likelihood and certainty. And it's more of a insurance policy than anything else. So hope this helps somebody get a lot of questions about, and if you're looking at a partnership, please follow this advice so that you don't end up a couple of years down the road in in, in legal battles with somebody that is just like you and you're stepping on each other's toes.

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