Starting a business can be an exciting time for those jumping into it, but can be daunting if you are doing it alone. In many cases, when starting a business one question comes up: “Is it better with a partner and to go solo?” Here are some of the pros and cons to going solo versus venturing into the business world with a trusty partner.

Solo

Going out on your own allows you the ability to make the business how you see fit without requiring input from anyone else. Also, you will solely make all of the decisions, therefore claiming all profits. And, of course, the credit for the success will be all yours.

However, being by yourself means you do not have anyone to truly rely on that has a vested interest like you do. It also means you have added stress due to the amount of risk falling squarely on your shoulders with no one to share in it.

Partners

Having a partner(s) is great in the sense that they can shoulder many of the risks of the business so you don’t feel like you’re all alone. Multiple partners can also bring much diverse strength to the company, which could lead to more profits.

Of course, when money is involved, more contracts and agreements are necessary to know who is legally responsible for what. My partners believe they can avoid this fee, but in reality, this could be more costly as issues with money and responsibilities could arise putting the company in a very precarious spot of dealing with internal matters. Also, there is, of course, the matter of making sure all partners are responsible their role in the company, and the prevention of one partner pulling all of the weight, which in turn defeats the purpose of having a partner at all.