Business partners need to talk to each other

I have seen a lot of businesses go bust the whole of my 10 years being a businessperson myself. I have seen the partners of legal firm which have together for years bicker and then breaks up to form other legal firms. I have seen friends who are like me, from their day in university, had planned to open up a firm, built a legal firm business from scratch and then due to differences in opinion do not talk to each other anymore. Some survives as a legal firm but there are two camps and two bosses to please.

The problem with a legal firm, we are accountable for all our decisions personally. We are not shielded from any bad decision which might affect our bottom line or liabilities which might bankrupt us if we are not careful. We are subjected to scrutiny by the Bar Council which can suspend us from practice if they even hear a whiff of scandal regarding the management of monies by any legal firm.

As lawyers are said to be a lucrative business and we safekeep a lot of people's money, it is a very regulated business. Imagine if your hard-earned money is being managed by bickering lawyers who have the right to sign out from the bank nearly all of the money. Scary isn't it? Especially if they hold a lot of those monies called the stakeholder money which developer entrusted them to safeguard until the time is to be returned back to the developer.

That is why in a legal firm, the best word to describe the relationship between partners are 'Transparency'. Knowing each other really well. The partner's favourites; his hobby; his extra-curriculum activity; his life and even his hang-out area. And the best way to know this is to talk to each other. Even of unrelated matter.

Oh, and if you do come to my office, talking to each other is a daily affair for me and my partner. We have a few rituals which we follow to get in touch with each other especially if may affect how we handle situations at the office....