Customer Reviews

The Partnership Charter: How To Start Out Right With Your New Business Partnership (or Fix The One You're In)

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I came across this book in the small business section of the library, and once I had read it, decided I needed to purchase a copy for my permanent collection. I have been through the partnership anguish described in the book, and I wish I'd found the book earlier because I think my partner and I may have had a chance at working things out had we followed Gage's advice. Moreover, I am writing a book on women and small business, including a section about how natural and helpful it is to take on a business partner. I plan to refer to and recommend Gage's book in my own. The Partnership Charter is insightful, useful, and well-written. In a very professional way, Gage tackles one of the most vexing challenges of small businesses: they are personality-driven. I won't pretend that implementation of his advice is easy, but at least you'll have a roadmap that helps you and your partner to reduce the risks, get to know each other better, and give it your collective best shot.

This is a top-notch book - nicely written, smartly organized, and easy to follow and understand. It provides insightful information, telling case histories, useful checklists and exercises, and even includes a fully developed "Partnership Charter" in the appendix. Author David Gage offers an inside view of partnerships, and his case studies make the text a pleasure to read. More importantly, he shows you how to create a partnership charter that will function as your enterprise's Magna Carta in the years to come. If you are planning a partnership, we advise you to study this expert presentation first. You will save yourself a lot of trouble.

I read The Partnership Charter as I was about to enter into a partnership to start a business requiring large amounts of startup capital which I had almost finished raising. Upon reading this great book, I realized that my partner was not the one to do this venture with and I pulled out at the last minute. I thank David and this book for saving me from a great deal of anguish and aggravation. Had I entered into this partnerhip, I would have ended up doing the lion's share of the work and would have had to break up the partnership.

As a business advisor I'm constantly looking for tools to help my clients, and this is the best one I've found for partnerships. Gage's book explains how to defuse potentially explosive issues by detecting them in advance using a positive and creative process. While the underlying concepts make perfect sense --- addressing compatibility, on multiple levels, before there's a crisis --- what really impressed me was the practical, systematic approach to identifying and working on these issues. The author's depth of experience and expertise is made easily accessible by his clear, jargon-free style of writing. Not a panacea --- these are realistic suggestions that require commitment and work --- but worth the effort if you want to improve the chances for a successful partnership.

I really enjoyed this book and wish that it had been required reading in business school. Unlike many "business" books, this one is covers not only the theory behind what makes a good partnership but also the practice of building and maintaining a good partnership. Anyone who is part of some sort of organization, for-profit or non-profit, will find practical advice here. A must read for any entrepreneur, family business or new venture.

After reading this well written, easily read, book, I ordered seven more copies for friends and associates. Any one in a partnership or contemplating a partnership should read this.

I've been regularly informed that its not a matter of if, but rather when your partnership will fail. David Gage starts out warning the reader about business partnerships and makes you take stock and check your head if really do need a partner or not. Ultimately, this book develops a framework for setting expectations and creating lines of communication up front for a sucessful long term partnership. The real-world examples, years of experience and clear, concise straight-up language makes this a great read. The unspoken expectations of a business partnership are no more! Buy this book and read it throughly.

I am a management consultant that helps companies with growth, and work with 3 partners in my firm. We developed a partnership agreement, but, as the company has developed, it has lacked depth in thinking through how we continue to work together as circumstances have changed. Gage's book provides a structure and process by which this would not happen -- i.e., partners have a better discussion at the start of the partnership (or whenever it is needed/wanted -- we'll be having one soon) that enables them to better plan for what might happen and create a framework for bringing these issues up when they need to be discussed. This is a terrific book because it provides background and context, as well as practical, actionable advice. And it is useful for people considering, in, or dissolving a partnership.

The Partnership Charter contains all of the elements needed to start a partnership out right, or to mend one that has been sidetracked. Most of the Partnership Charter framework is also transferable to other relationships, e.g., teams in a business setting. The systematic approach to discussing issues such as values and expectations accelerates the ability to work together effectively, and to create better long-term relationships. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is working to establish better working relationships in a small group setting, be it in a partnership, or in a team environment.

I was surprised at how easy this book was to read. The subject matter could have become dry, but David Gage provides so many interesting examples that I was curious to continue reading. Half way through the book, I was also struck by how this is more than just about how to form a business partnership. There is some good advice here on all kinds of partnerships, including marriage and any other endeavor that requires you to work with different personalities. I'd recommend to anyone that was thinking about starting a business with another person, something that often involves a heavy time and/or financial commitement, to take the time to read this short book. I found the example Charter in the back especially useful.