You might have heard horror stories of bad business partners causing trouble or even ruining an entire organization. However, partnerships are important for expansion of your business. Getting into deals with others is an unavoidable aspect of running your own company. While you can never know with 100% certainty if a person is a good potential business partner, you can at least weed out more of the bad by knowing the red flags to watch for.

Poor communication skills

If the potential partner doesn’t communicate clearly with you, then it’s best to search for a different partner. You two are more likely to have a business dispute due to the poor communication. If your deal was never written down, it’s more difficult for you to pursue litigation. Always have written agreements. If your partner fails to uphold their promise, you may want to hire a lawyer who is familiar in business law to seek a solution.

Focusing on only their success

When you’re in discussions with a potential partner, they should speak of mutual success. If they focus on their own success, then you know a partnership is going to be a one-way street.

Lack of timeliness

People who show up late or cancel at the last minute don’t make good business partners. These issues indicate a lack of responsibility and discipline, which will leak out into other areas. It’s not simply an inconvenience or point of frustration.

Talking negatively about others

You’ve probably heard before that if a person bad-mouths another acquaintance to you, then they are probably going to talk negatively about you at some point too. Whether your potential partner is trash-talking competition, customers or someone from their personal life, it’s a bad sign.

Discernment is necessary when choosing partners in business even when it comes to the vendor type of partnership. You want someone who is responsible, respectful, honest and good at communicating to do business with.