hi I’m Evan Carmichael welcome to the
edition of ask Evan I just closed my
video here today I’m answering a
question let me find it no not that one
back back back back back back back here
from Marty’s all right so Marty wrote in
saying hey Evan I have a question
instead of blazing the trail on your own
where do you go about finding business
partners or even better mastermind
partners who are the same level as you
are and will help you to create better
ideas and be more productive it seems
like it’s the hardest thing in the world
to find those types of people so thanks
for the question Marty’s a great
question coming from a YouTube viewer it
is tough and congratulations to you at
least a start for knowing that you can’t
do everything on your own and for
looking for help a lot of entrepreneurs
are afraid to ask for help try to do
within themselves and you’re you’re
always limited right you you cannot do
everything yourself you don’t have the
skill set or the knowledge and the most
successful entrepreneurs are the ones
who reach out to get help and it may not
be a business partner or a mastermind
partner but they are going out looking
for help and recognizing that they don’t
know everything themselves so Congrats
already making it past that step and
recognizing that you you know do need to
go find some people to help grow so you
ask about business partners you ask
about math my groups for the business
partners it’s like getting married you
know you have to really really really
know the person before you jump into
business together and I think a lot of
entrepreneurs make the mistake of
finding somebody who has a good skill
set that matches what they’re you know
not good at so if you’re good at
operations or creating the product and
you partner up somebody’s really good at
sales it makes sense on paper right you
have the skills that complement each
other but it doesn’t mean you’re going
to get along or have the same vision or
have the same personality and have the
same values right just the things you
look for when you’re getting married
right do we have the same values we want
the same thing do we have personalities
that that will work well together or not
and in the first year or so of business
it’s easy to get going and get excited
because you got the momentum going you
know you you have the energy and
excitement that comes with a startup and
so everybody is on the same page but
after that you start to hit roadblocks
and it gets tougher than you ever
thought it would be and you have bills
that are due and it becomes really hard
and so that’s when partnerships can
break apart and come you know have have
a lot of challenges that are associated
with them and so you really want to make
sure you do your work before you go out
and and bring on you know partners into
your business
I’ve had some businesses with business
partners in the past and how I’ve always
done it is I’ve worked with the person
in some capacity before so it’s not just
you know meeting somebody at random or
we’ve got an event and striking up you
know a business partnership we might try
something small some kind of joint
venture some small deal on the side see
how we work together see if it’s a good
fit or not see if I get excited about
you know the phone call or meeting
that’s coming up with that person and
and try to get through some kind of hard
point with them you know try to go
through some kind of struggle you know
before you get married you want to have
gone through some tough times as well
and not just experienced it good because
you want to know you can last together
through the hard times and so the same
thing with a business partnership I
would start it off with something small
part time on the side see if you guys
work together and then try to expand it
out I’ve always started businesses with
people who I know from some kind of
background before so it wasn’t going in
cold it was people who had some kind of
relationship with and thought that we
you know could be able to work together
as business partners on the mastermind
group side that’s another great
opportunity and we run a couple of
mastermind groups here in Toronto for
local entrepreneurs who are trying to
grow their business and I think of it as
an informal Board of Advisors so with a
business partner then you own part of
your company with a mastermind group
they don’t own part of your but your
company but you’re all just trying to
help each other out and I have a
worksheet that explains how we recruit
members and
the way we run a group that may be
helpful for you if you’re trying to
start a group but really you have to
make sure again you do your homework and
a lot of these groups will just bring in
a warm body
you know anybody because they’re
interested in signing up you have to
make sure you take them through a
process to make sure they’re going to
fit with the group and it’s not just a
skill set and it’s not just the size of
their business and expertise but again
thinking about the personality and are
they of the right mindset or not to be
able to fit into the group so for our
groups we look for people who are beyond
the startup stage we look for people who
are wanting to grow business beyond
themselves and there’s nothing wrong
with people who are set ups there are
nothing wrong with people who want to be
one person show it just doesn’t fit with
our group you know if I tried to bring
something like that into one of our
groups they would say no because it just
doesn’t fit so you have to define what
each group is about I meet with
everybody over coffee and we see you
know I learn about their business and I
get to know their personality and I see
that is this somebody who I would want
to hang out with you know a lot of the
people in our groups are kind of like me
same kind of personality and that’s fun
you know it’s fun for me because I want
to be around people who who I get energy
from and who I like hanging around and
not people who I don’t look forward to
seeing every month right so I meet with
them over coffee we talk about the group
there’s a whole process they have to go
through there’s an envier they have to
sign is that there’s a one-page letter
they have to write there’s a trial
meeting that they have to have and so it
really helps weed out the people and
make sure that when you’re bringing
somebody in to be officially part of the
group then they are accepted in terms of
how to find the people a lot of it comes
from online so we set up a website
talking about creating the groups some
of our process and people are searching
for all sorts of different keywords and
they end up finding us and contacting me
a little bit happens to the word of
mouth I think some of our members have
come from people who are existing
members and they referred their their
friends and colleagues on a lot of
people who join the groups it’s tough
because as entrepreneur you don’t have a
lot of other entrepreneurs who you can
connect with on a regular basis not
Sophie
back on you know we may have friends and
family and they they like to listen but
they maybe can’t provide support because
they don’t know they haven’t been
through what you’re going through and so
if you had a really good support network
of entrepreneurs you probably wouldn’t
be looking to join a mastermind group so
a lot of the members don’t necessarily
know other people who would be good fits
and so it’s it’s you know your role if
you’re organizing it to you know be the
one out recruiting create a webpage
promote a little bit and get people
interested you may be the phone some
partnerships with other entrepreneur
groups or government organizations who
are promoting to entrepreneurs and
here’s another resource for them to
follow up on almost every city has some
kind of government organization that is
trying to help entrepreneurs out so you
know let them know that you’re trying to
create these groups maybe they’ll even
help you out with it but you have to
make sure you do your homework and you
think about getting the right people in
and skill sets you need and the
personality fits and and you know do you
want to spend the next year with these
people are not are they going to help
your business or not so it is definitely
definitely a tough road but one worth
following and think about it again for
me the partnership side or for started a
mastermind group to do your work you
know make sure you know what you’re
looking for in advance try something out
small to start with and then invite you
know then invite them for a potential
further opportunity if it’s a business
partnership or mastermind group but but
keep looking out keep reaching out don’t
get frustrated by the process and think
you’re gonna have to do everything
yourself because that’s always going to
limit your thinking and how big your
business is going to be able to grow so
thank you for the question hopefully
that helped for those of you watching if
you like the video please give it a
thumbs up below it always makes you want
to do more videos for you and if you
have a comment about the partnerships or
mastermind groups or another question
about your business feel free to leave
it in the comment section below I always
read those and I always answer those
good as I can they always make my day
when they do come in so thank you and
I’ll see you on the next episode
edition of ask Evan I just closed my
video here today I’m answering a
question let me find it no not that one
back back back back back back back here
from Marty’s all right so Marty wrote in
saying hey Evan I have a question
instead of blazing the trail on your own
where do you go about finding business
partners or even better mastermind
partners who are the same level as you
are and will help you to create better
ideas and be more productive it seems
like it’s the hardest thing in the world
to find those types of people so thanks
for the question Marty’s a great
question coming from a YouTube viewer it
is tough and congratulations to you at
least a start for knowing that you can’t
do everything on your own and for
looking for help a lot of entrepreneurs
are afraid to ask for help try to do
within themselves and you’re you’re
always limited right you you cannot do
everything yourself you don’t have the
skill set or the knowledge and the most
successful entrepreneurs are the ones
who reach out to get help and it may not
be a business partner or a mastermind
partner but they are going out looking
for help and recognizing that they don’t
know everything themselves so Congrats
already making it past that step and
recognizing that you you know do need to
go find some people to help grow so you
ask about business partners you ask
about math my groups for the business
partners it’s like getting married you
know you have to really really really
know the person before you jump into
business together and I think a lot of
entrepreneurs make the mistake of
finding somebody who has a good skill
set that matches what they’re you know
not good at so if you’re good at
operations or creating the product and
you partner up somebody’s really good at
sales it makes sense on paper right you
have the skills that complement each
other but it doesn’t mean you’re going
to get along or have the same vision or
have the same personality and have the
same values right just the things you
look for when you’re getting married
right do we have the same values we want
the same thing do we have personalities
that that will work well together or not
and in the first year or so of business
it’s easy to get going and get excited
because you got the momentum going you
know you you have the energy and
excitement that comes with a startup and
so everybody is on the same page but
after that you start to hit roadblocks
and it gets tougher than you ever
thought it would be and you have bills
that are due and it becomes really hard
and so that’s when partnerships can
break apart and come you know have have
a lot of challenges that are associated
with them and so you really want to make
sure you do your work before you go out
and and bring on you know partners into
your business
I’ve had some businesses with business
partners in the past and how I’ve always
done it is I’ve worked with the person
in some capacity before so it’s not just
you know meeting somebody at random or
we’ve got an event and striking up you
know a business partnership we might try
something small some kind of joint
venture some small deal on the side see
how we work together see if it’s a good
fit or not see if I get excited about
you know the phone call or meeting
that’s coming up with that person and
and try to get through some kind of hard
point with them you know try to go
through some kind of struggle you know
before you get married you want to have
gone through some tough times as well
and not just experienced it good because
you want to know you can last together
through the hard times and so the same
thing with a business partnership I
would start it off with something small
part time on the side see if you guys
work together and then try to expand it
out I’ve always started businesses with
people who I know from some kind of
background before so it wasn’t going in
cold it was people who had some kind of
relationship with and thought that we
you know could be able to work together
as business partners on the mastermind
group side that’s another great
opportunity and we run a couple of
mastermind groups here in Toronto for
local entrepreneurs who are trying to
grow their business and I think of it as
an informal Board of Advisors so with a
business partner then you own part of
your company with a mastermind group
they don’t own part of your but your
company but you’re all just trying to
help each other out and I have a
worksheet that explains how we recruit
members and
the way we run a group that may be
helpful for you if you’re trying to
start a group but really you have to
make sure again you do your homework and
a lot of these groups will just bring in
a warm body
you know anybody because they’re
interested in signing up you have to
make sure you take them through a
process to make sure they’re going to
fit with the group and it’s not just a
skill set and it’s not just the size of
their business and expertise but again
thinking about the personality and are
they of the right mindset or not to be
able to fit into the group so for our
groups we look for people who are beyond
the startup stage we look for people who
are wanting to grow business beyond
themselves and there’s nothing wrong
with people who are set ups there are
nothing wrong with people who want to be
one person show it just doesn’t fit with
our group you know if I tried to bring
something like that into one of our
groups they would say no because it just
doesn’t fit so you have to define what
each group is about I meet with
everybody over coffee and we see you
know I learn about their business and I
get to know their personality and I see
that is this somebody who I would want
to hang out with you know a lot of the
people in our groups are kind of like me
same kind of personality and that’s fun
you know it’s fun for me because I want
to be around people who who I get energy
from and who I like hanging around and
not people who I don’t look forward to
seeing every month right so I meet with
them over coffee we talk about the group
there’s a whole process they have to go
through there’s an envier they have to
sign is that there’s a one-page letter
they have to write there’s a trial
meeting that they have to have and so it
really helps weed out the people and
make sure that when you’re bringing
somebody in to be officially part of the
group then they are accepted in terms of
how to find the people a lot of it comes
from online so we set up a website
talking about creating the groups some
of our process and people are searching
for all sorts of different keywords and
they end up finding us and contacting me
a little bit happens to the word of
mouth I think some of our members have
come from people who are existing
members and they referred their their
friends and colleagues on a lot of
people who join the groups it’s tough
because as entrepreneur you don’t have a
lot of other entrepreneurs who you can
connect with on a regular basis not
Sophie
back on you know we may have friends and
family and they they like to listen but
they maybe can’t provide support because
they don’t know they haven’t been
through what you’re going through and so
if you had a really good support network
of entrepreneurs you probably wouldn’t
be looking to join a mastermind group so
a lot of the members don’t necessarily
know other people who would be good fits
and so it’s it’s you know your role if
you’re organizing it to you know be the
one out recruiting create a webpage
promote a little bit and get people
interested you may be the phone some
partnerships with other entrepreneur
groups or government organizations who
are promoting to entrepreneurs and
here’s another resource for them to
follow up on almost every city has some
kind of government organization that is
trying to help entrepreneurs out so you
know let them know that you’re trying to
create these groups maybe they’ll even
help you out with it but you have to
make sure you do your homework and you
think about getting the right people in
and skill sets you need and the
personality fits and and you know do you
want to spend the next year with these
people are not are they going to help
your business or not so it is definitely
definitely a tough road but one worth
following and think about it again for
me the partnership side or for started a
mastermind group to do your work you
know make sure you know what you’re
looking for in advance try something out
small to start with and then invite you
know then invite them for a potential
further opportunity if it’s a business
partnership or mastermind group but but
keep looking out keep reaching out don’t
get frustrated by the process and think
you’re gonna have to do everything
yourself because that’s always going to
limit your thinking and how big your
business is going to be able to grow so
thank you for the question hopefully
that helped for those of you watching if
you like the video please give it a
thumbs up below it always makes you want
to do more videos for you and if you
have a comment about the partnerships or
mastermind groups or another question
about your business feel free to leave
it in the comment section below I always
read those and I always answer those
good as I can they always make my day
when they do come in so thank you and
I’ll see you on the next episode
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