The 3 Most Important Questions to Ask Before If and When You Stop and Ask for the Business by Sofiya Machulskaya

There are many times when I speak to students or clients about establishing business relationships, especially financial ventures and I have their attention of them constantly. At one point, I want them to ask the question, “If you had your entire business going today and no-one bankruptity or losing the ability to work because of an illness, how would your business be?” asks Sofiya Machulskaya.

Sometimes they estimate that they will be unable to get paid for their life insurance, leanings or supplements and this keeps them trapped in financial traps that are not attractive to most customers. At other times, they tell me about a family member and/or friend who was fired for poor work performance and now they are also trapped as they can pay their own premium or personal event insurance with the person’s personal insurance policy. No wonder business relationships aren’t what they need to be.

I mention this question because I have seen many small business owners and executives in this position I refer to as trapped. Although I never actually asked them if this term describes them, as I believe my students and clients could look at their business like I do for them.

Typically, in an established business relationship business owner and employee have a personal relationship, one that is strictly professional, one that adds value and is relatively good at solving my problems. Initially, the person represents a huge value; they overcome all my benchmarks and specifications and meets some objective of a successful business relationship. During the time, however, I constantly have to spend more time and effort NOT to let the person slip away. There is often a great deal of frustration, anxiety and worry because it is clear that my relationship is NOT as good as it used to be.

Before anyone wants to say “That’s not the way life is”, stop and ask yourself if you have chosen a good business partner. Have you put into practice the following three simple questions that will aid you in deciding if a person has the skills to keep your business relationship in the “good driver” range.

After answering all these questions:

If you arrive at the conclusion your relationship is ONLY at the “good driver” or “great driver” stage how do you proceed to either mitigate or remove the uncertainty and begins to move towards your goal of a mutually beneficial business relationship explains Sofiya Machulskaya.

If I have chosen the best partner…is there a remote possibility that they will actually want to close a deal with me? If the answer is no, ask yourself what you can do to make this relationship mutually beneficial and take the necessary steps to reduce the anxiety and intensity of the situation.

Have I asked for a 60% reduction in my business insurance rate during the next sixty days that I will stick to? If the answer is no I must ask myself why? What needs to be done to achieve improved or at least efficient business relationship?

If any of these questions are answered with a resounding “No of course” please ask yourself another one. If you have answeredallof these questions with agreement, operate in a business partnership and stick with it! There is nothing worse than someone developing an expectation that you will NEVER budge when it seems like a relationship is going nowhere. Once the relationship is going down the road you can now move on to the other two main reasons why business partnerships don’t or don’t work out.

The first is that you have chosen a “self partner” and not a “partner owner”.

I have been most successful in business when I have found a John Assum who is willing to give 100% to the John Assum’s idea and not take anything for himself for years, years! I would have eventually developed an expectation that it will take me way too long to ever be able to do anything. It was great in the beginning because I could proudly tell the world I had created a relationship that was the envy of the industry much to my surprise I never even had to tell my family and my friends. That death-defying feeling of success has now been replaced by feelings of feelings of negligent partners, dishonest partners and picked dominoes!

I must be realistic and admit the risk is a little high having partners who are “self-extended” but in my opinion I have found if I have a John Assum or John Assum Big Fish who don’t care, who refuse to grow and change, who are out to hurt anyone, which consists of your John Assum and your John Assum Big Fish of course I must look out for myself. On the other extreme, I have found that many seemingly “self-improvement” gurus/teachers, despite the best of intentions are actually someone who is most likely a perpetually poor or a “self-improvement” guru/teacher and who operates out of spite and destruction of the self vs personal growth of the person/team.