Today I thought I’d share a little backstory about how The Blog Market got started and how Angela and I ended up working together on a team. The Blog Market was created as a way to share blog design tutorials and engage in community with fellow bloggers. I considered making that happen on my personal blog, Earl Grey, but I didn’t want to completely change the focus of my blog. The Blog Market was meant to be a separate project with different goals. I knew that I wanted to have contributors so I reached out to both Angela and a couple other friends. Angela and I ended up getting coffee when I visited Santa Monica and we talked a lot about TBM and my goals for it, as well as what we were focusing on for our individual blogs. As the blog posts got rolling on TBM last fall, I realized that Angela and I were both on the very same page and I asked if she wanted to share the blog responsibilities 50/50. I’m SO happy we decided to do that. It’s been really fun and actually very stress-free. That’s always been our #1 goal with TBM – to make blogging fun again.
While collaborating on something like a blog or small biz can be a great experience, it can also just completely fail. Honestly, sometimes it’s better to just go solo. Below are a few things I’ve learned about how to make a blog or biz collaboration successful.
6 Things to Consider Before Starting a Blog or Biz with a Friend
1. Make sure you’re both willing to put equal energy into your project. Remember group projects in high school? There is nothing more frustrating than doing 90% of the work on a project and only getting credit for half. It’s really burdensome to take on both your tasks and someone else’s responsibilities as well. You and your partner should agree on specific tasks and time commitments. Angela and I have a “TBM Roles” doc where we list all of our responsibilities, from who manages social media to who updates and maintains our site design.
2. Talk about your goals and what you’re excited about before you begin working together. You and your friend might be equally enthusiastic about “the main idea” of the project but have conflicting ideas of where you want to go with it. Definitely share what you’re looking forward to for the future of your project. Having very different goals can cause a rift in your biz relationship in the future. It can also result in putting unequal effort into the project (see #1!).
3. Collaborating is best when your skills balance out. I love working with Angela on TBM because we offer different perspectives and have very different skills. I’m more focused on design as it relates to successful blogging, and Angela is really passionate about helping small business owners. Producing a wider range of topics means we’re able to reach a larger audience. We also differ in our blog maintenance skills. Angela takes on all of our social media accounts and manages analytics, while I maintain our site design and keep track of income. Sharing these tasks allows us to be much more efficient and productive.
4. Be prepared to communicate with your biz partner all. the. time. Angela and I have like a hundred documents and spreadsheets for TBM right now (just kidding, probably around 10, but still). Our email threads always get pretty out of control because we are constantly communicating blog post ideas, marketing strategies, and responses to emails we receive. If you’re thinking about collaborating on a long-term project, be prepared to communicate about everything. Falling off the face of the earth is not an option. :)
5. Test the waters before you dive into a partnership. By starting The Blog Market on my own, I was able to test the waters with contributors. If you’re thinking of collaborating on a big dream job-type project with a friend, see if you can work together on a smaller project first. You’ll get a glimpse of how well you work together and who knows, maybe you’ll decide that you actually prefer working alone.
6. Know that you can succeed on your own before you decide to work with someone else. I used to have a strong fear of fully diving into the creative blogging world by myself. I saw so many awesome teams out there that were just making it happen (sisters, best friends, husband/wife duos) and I felt like I couldn’t be successful unless I had somebody by my side, equally as excited about blogging as I was. Looking back, part of me thinks it’s silly that I ever felt that way. But those feelings were very real. Most of you know it’s kind of intimidating to say, “Hello World! Welcome to my blog. This is my first post.” (haha, WordPress joke). I guess what I’m trying to say is that it’s important to collaborate because you want to, not because you feel you need to. I know that my dream job involves working on a team, but I don’t think I would be able to make that happen without first having confidence in myself as a solo entrepreneur.
To those of you who currently blog or run a business with a friend, what is your best advice for those considering it? Do you have any special methods of managing tasks or communicating details?
Has anyone else considered collaborating on a large project before realizing you actually do better on your own?
Kerstin says
Ah that’s great. I’ve actually been discussing something like that with a friend of mine lately because at first we wanted to launch a blog together. But now, 6 months later, I am so happy that we didn’t do it since we both went in 2 completely different directions and we would only have ended up in a huge fight.
I find the last tip the most important one! It’s really really important that people value their own work and know what they can actually achieve when they’re on their own!
Love, kerstin
http://www.missgetaway.com/
Melanie says
I agree with you 100%! I’m working with one of my best buddies. It’s both fun and challenging at times. The formula to a successful partnership is Communication + Effort.
Jasmine says
This is exactly what I needed right now! I am in the process of transitioning to work with my best friend, and it has been interesting to go from friends to partners, but I am learning so much! We created Google Docs where we chat and add more info, we found that it was a better way for us to communicate as opposed to constant emails amidst out already busy inboxes!
Miss Pippi says
Really interesting topic and very useful tips. As always: Communication is key! Before starting the project and during the process, too.
http://misspippisstyle.blogspot.hu/