Built to Last: What Makes a Strong Business Partner

Zoie Newman • October 5, 2026

Over the past year, I’ve heard the same comment from many solo entrepreneurs: “It must be nice to have a business partner.” It is—but a strong partnership depends on more than having someone beside you. I’ve been fortunate to build a business with a partner who supports and challenges me, helps shape what we put into the world, teaches me, and pushes me to grow. Because not all partnerships work this way, I want to share what our experience has taught me about building one that lasts.


First, it is important to say that respecting your business partner and liking them are not the same thing. I am fortunate to count my business partner as one of my closest friends, but before partnering with anyone, there are two more important questions to ask: Do I respect them professionally? Do I trust them? I do not mean surface-level trust, such as whether they will show up on time. I mean deep, vulnerability-based trust—the kind that allows you to have honest conversations about money, values, and what is best for the business.


These questions are foundational. Without respect and trust, a partnership can undermine your business goals. When those core elements are present, I have found three other areas especially important when considering what makes a strong business partnership:


Have you seen each other at your worst? My business partner and I have known each other since college, and our travels through Thailand, Nicaragua, and parts of the U.S. tested us through crowded hostels, long journeys, hunger, exhaustion, and too little sleep. In those difficult moments, we continued to choose care, respect, patience, and forgiveness. Those experiences showed me that we could adapt without losing ourselves or damaging the relationship. A partnership that has never been tested offers little evidence of how it will hold up under pressure. Before going into business together, ask whether past challenges have strengthened your relationship or exposed patterns that could make working together harder.


How do you manage conflict? Conflict will arise—and it should. Healthy tension is a cornerstone of building a durable business. It reveals how partners respond under pressure, deepens the relationship, and can push the company to improve, uphold its values, and achieve more. How partners handle conflict also sets the standard for the wider organization. Make constructive disagreement feel normal from the start and address small tensions before they grow.


What does each of you bring to the table? If you bring identical strengths, that may be a problem. A strong business partner should complement you, not mirror you, by filling gaps with different abilities. I am more emotional, creative, visual, and quick to act; my partner is more analytical, practical, and deliberate. These differences create productive tension: they push me to do more research and him to make decisions. One partner may bring the passion and purpose, while the other brings the practical plan. Companies such as Apple and Microsoft were built on complementary partnerships. Yours need not look the same, but your partner should help you grow and challenge your thinking.


This is only one perspective on choosing a business partner, but it reflects what has worked for our company, and the many successful companies that have come before us. Before committing, clarify your values, needs, expectations, and non-negotiables. Then ask whether the person beside you has earned your trust, complements your strengths, and can navigate pressure and disagreement with honesty and respect. The right partnership will not remove every challenge, but it can make challenges easier to face and turn them into opportunities for growth. When both people are committed to the relationship as well as the business, the partnership can become one of the company’s greatest assets.


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The Sage Source: Insights in HR & Development

Reflecting On Our First Year of Business

By Zoie Newman • September 8, 2026
“As you start to walk on the way, the way appears.” – Rumi

Why HR Matters Before Your Business Feels "Big Enough"

By Zoie Newman • August 3, 2026
Last month we did a podcast with the Lake Oswego Business Chamber on why small business should consider HR sooner than they think ( Listen here. ) One of the main themes throughout our discussion was on HR as cultural creators for your business, and how to support the environment you envision for yourself and your dream at the very start. This month we wanted to dive a little bit deeper into how HR can function as a partner and business developer for you. 1. Setting your values early and frequently – One area that I find business frequently neglect is the area of what a team and a company wants to value. They discuss what to value in their output and with their clients, how their external position is being perceived but never what their internal culture should feel like to the people that work in the business. If you don’t talk about this, it creates itself and is therefore less controllable and harder to fix if it goes in the wrong direction. Early in our business, I insisted that we as a business partnership sit down and talk about what was important to us. How it should feel to work with us and be around us. What our behaviors and actions would speak to. HR early in a business can mediate this discussion for you and help you create a code of conduct that reflects these values. Having this structure helps later call people back when abusive behavior occurs, helping elevate larger problems in the future. Values work can be a living aspect of your business and should be reviewed frequently. Changes don’t mean you have failed, but help you recognize your progress 2. Holding the leaders responsible – Most small businesses do HR in house, and even though that is cost effective, often, the person running HR does not have the training, education and experience to do so effectively, opening the company to a lot of risk. This is where HR can step in and start holding business owners accountable for ensuring legal and ethical practices are taking place. That those values, mean more than a statement. Business owners need this check and balance and a way to stay compliant. It is what helps maintain trust through the long-term. 3. Labor & Recruitment – One of the more practical ways business owners can use HR at the beginning is helping with retaining and keeping labor. Recruitment is hard and often made harder when a business owner is too busy to give it the full attention that it needs. This can also affect your output and cost you clients, as well as damage culture. If you are constantly churning through employees, unable to hire quality labor, and seeing high turnover, then that constant state of change can lead to a lot of burnout for business owners and those who stay. HR can help stabilize this and create a structure around recruitment for the future. Oprah Winfrey recently said, “HR is the custodians of culture.” I believe that when HR is introduced early and done well, it helps create the kind of workplace where values are not just written down but actively practiced. Culture does not wait until a business is larger, more profitable, or less busy; it begins forming from the first hire, the first conflict, the first leadership decision, and the first time someone’s needs are either heard or dismissed. Small business owners have a unique opportunity to shape that culture intentionally before harmful patterns become embedded. By clarifying values, holding leadership accountable, and building strong labor and recruitment practices, HR becomes more than an administrative function—it becomes a partner in protecting the dream you are building. When we treat culture as something worth tending to from the beginning, we create businesses where people can stay, grow, and contribute.