How to Find the Right Partner to Grow Your Business
BY ROSEANNE CHENG
I don’t totally remember when Josie Robinson and I first met, but I would imagine it was sometime around 2013, when our first books came out. It might have been a book event, or maybe it was a gathering hosted by our publisher, Wise Ink Creative Publishing.
Little did we know what life would have in store for us!
As we say on our website, Josie and I never set out to become book marketers. It just… sorta happened. Here’s the short version of the story: I was working part time as a Marketing Director at our mutual publishing company, trying my best to help other authors sell their books. Josie had found a ton of success using Amazon Advertising to sell her book, so she created an online course teaching people how to run Amazon ads. One day, out of the blue, she asked me if I’d like to take it.
I was skeptical. Algorithms and ad strategy weren’t my expertise. Most of the authors I worked with were selling books through speaking events and gift shops anyway, myself included.
After I took the course, I realized two important things:
I was working WAY too hard to sell books (and so were the authors I was working with!)
I was also working way too hard to connect with individual authors. Online courses meant I could save a ton of time and energy helping authors find success.
It became apparent to Josie and me that we were onto something valuable. We could create online courses teaching authors the “business” of being a writer. We created Evergreen Authors, the first of its kind online school for writers, in 2019.
Needless to say, it’s been a wild ride the last two and a half years. We had a global pandemic to contend with as well as unanticipated my cross-country move from Minnesota to Arizona.
And we’re happy to report that Evergreen Authors is growing and thriving.
I want to be very clear here: Josie and I had never started a business before. We were authors and busy moms with an idea for a business that we believed in, but that was where our expertise ended.
When people ask us the secret to our success, we point to one thing: our strong partnership.
Here is what that strong partnership looks like for us:
We have very similar communication styles
Josie and I are direct, no B.S. communicators. No beating around the bush, no blowing smoke. If something doesn’t feel right, we tell each other directly. If one of us has a question, we ask it and expect a direct, no nonsense answer. We take nothing personally.
We stay in our lanes.
Josie and I have opposite strengths. I often refer to Josie as the “technical brains” of what we do, while I am the content creator. I never– and I mean NEVER– update our website. That’s Josie’s zone of genius. Similarly, Josie rarely writes content for Evergreen Authors, unless it’s technical. That’s my area of expertise. We know our strengths and weaknesses and stay in our lanes.
We have clear boundaries
Josie and I know all too well that book publishing and marketing is a personal business, with boundaries that can feel blurry at times. Because of that, we are extra sensitive to giving each other space and honoring each other’s time. We are never late to our weekly meetings– that time is sacred and important. We are careful not to call or text each other with every little thing that happens. That’s what our weekly meeting time is for.
We honor each other’s gut instincts
Just like in a marriage, a business partnership isn’t 50/50. It’s 100/100. This means that if someone is feeling a little “off” about a business project or partnership, we skip it. No trying to convince the other to do something they don’t feel right about, ever. We’re either both in, or both out.
We stay focused on our end goal
Building a business is exciting, and ideas come fast and furious. We’ve seen lots of business owners and authors get caught up in trying to do “all the things”, and deal with burnout as a result. Our goal for creating Evergreen Authors was to create an online school that would result in passive income for us; something that would run itself, so to speak. That’s it. So when offers come our way for something that doesn’t align with that goal, we skip it. No matter how cool it sounds.
A lot of what a strong partnership looks like for us is centered around self-awareness and mutual respect. The truth is, Josie and I are alike in many ways, but different in many ways, too. Our partnership works because we don’t try to pretend to be anything we’re not.
Make no mistake about it– this type of solid partnership dramatically impacts the success of our business. We often hear from authors that they choose to work with us because they like our style, they trust us, they enjoy watching us interact. You can’t fake that kind of relationship!
So the bottom line is this– take the time to choose the right partner for you. It’s more than likely that your partner won’t be identical to you, and that is okay. The right partner will be flexible, open-minded, and most importantly, compliment you and your strengths and weaknesses.
Trust us– finding the right business partner makes all the difference!
ABOUT ROSEANNE CHENG
Roseanne Cheng is the author of five books and co-founder of Evergreen Authors, an online school teaching authors the business of being a writer. She is the former marketing director at an indie publishing house in Minneapolis and currently resides in Phoenix, Arizona.