Partnerships

How do you make a partnership work? (especially a female partnership)

At the end of the day, I think the main reason it works with Lo and I, is that we always have each others backs and best interests at heart.  I want the best for her and she wants the best for me; personally and professionally.  There is a love and respect regardless of, if it is a good day or a bad day.  You can’t ever let that change.  You have to be open and honest with each other and never let it get to where you don’t trust one another, or are afraid to speak up.  You have to keep the lines of communication open.  It is not unlike a marriage, hell I spend more time with her than I do my husband!  We laugh and say we are each others work husbands!

I think it helps that we are realistic about each other.  Neither of us is perfect, we always don’t have the greatest ideas and neither of us is in a good mood everyday.  I know you guys thought we walked around all day with martinis in hand and tutus and tiaras on, but sorry to disappoint you, that isn’t the case!  We also have come to realize that we agree on a lot of things, but we don’t agree on everything.  We compromise and LISTEN to one another.  I feel that women owned businesses usually are created out of a passion for something, not an ego.  For a partnership to work you either have to check your egos at the door or accept each others egos.  At your core you both have to have that same drive and passion.  You have to know that everything that you accomplish regardless of who is in the lead that day, is for the greater good of the company and is done as a team and done for each other.

More than likely, if you started your own company you have that ‘alpha’ female gene.  You have to be careful how you handle your alpha tendencies if there is more than one alpha female in the group!  Lorinda and I tend to sense when one of us needs to take the lead or is just going to take it!  We have always trusted each others gut instincts and been each others cheerleaders when the creative process is flowing.  We both have had to fight our way to the top of the male dominated food chain, we call the corporate ladder.  We have a respect and knowledge of what it took for each of us to get here.

At the end of the day it is wonderful to have someone that gets you and your company like no other.  You get to go through it ALL together ~ the good, the bad & the ugly.  It is a bond that is unexplainable.  You share the highs and you share the lows.  Sure there are days when you think you can’t discuss one more thing or do one more thing together; then you have a story or a funny thing you forgot to tell each other in the day and you pick up the phone and you talk.  Most of the times it isn’t even work related at that point ~ it is as best friends who truly get each other.

I always laugh and say that Lorinda and I are cut from the same cloth ~ just cut from opposite ends with some overlap.  I think that is the key to our partnership working.  We both bring something to the plate that is similar, but yet, just a little different.

-Amy