How to start a slow business 2 – find a partner

Originally, I wanted to do something like an online magazine, but I had no intention of doing it alone. I had no intention of quitting my full-time job, and I just didn't feel like continuing. So when I met someone I thought I could work with someday, I thought I'd start something. If I don't meet you, I won't do it.

In the first place, I didn't even think about doing a knitting magazine. My major in graduate school was urban planning, so I thought I'd like to disseminate information related to cities and architecture. That was my first job, so I knew I couldn't do it alone.

In 2011, when I met Tokuko after the earthquake, I knew that she was very passionate about making a book. If you are such a diligent person, I want to help you. I thought so. There are four reasons why I thought we could work together.

I love reading and am good at writing.

It means that you are a person who can take action to seriously want to change what you are dissatisfied with.

to speak clearly.

that they weren't friends.

Perhaps it is a standard that seems a little strange to ordinary people. Anyway, amirisu started from here.

The first two criteria are common to both of us. I like each other's writing. I'm doing a magazine, so it's natural to be able to write sentences. But for those of us who started working remotely, being able to communicate without fail through chats and blogs was really big. Because I had a habit of sticking to words so as not to cause misunderstanding.

People tend to think that I am calmer than Tokuko-san (laughs), but in fact, I am a person who is very angry with the world, having studied environmental issues in college and urban planning in graduate school. is. After graduating, when I was looking for a job, I didn't like what any of the potential companies were doing, so I ended up starting a business with my sister. Life has gotten a lot easier as I've gotten older and stopped getting angry about things I can't fix. Because I learned that everyone has their own adult affairs. But knitting was different. I couldn't just throw it away and felt like I could do something on my own.

Fourth, they weren't friends. It may seem surprising. Now we have passed over our best friends and have become a family. But when I decided to launch the magazine, we had only eaten together twice. The two of us rarely do direct messages or reply to comments on Twitter, so we really met twice and read each other's blogs. But I started because I thought we could work together.

If you're looking to start a business (magazines sell patterns for free, so it's a fine business), I don't recommend doing it with friends. Business partners who respect each other are the best. Family is number two. Because it will definitely be a fight. It's almost unthinkable that you can be 100% satisfied with each other's performance at work and not have to complain. I can't say what I want to say because friendship is important. If you work with someone like that, the quality of your work will suffer. Above all, I am stressed. I've seen people who started a company with a friend and lost both their job and their friends because they were betrayed. Family members can make up no matter how much they quarrel (already practiced).

And in the last seven years, Tokuko-san and I have never had a fight that looked like a fight. You're surprised. That's because we're always satisfied with each other's work. It is a strange coincidence that the other person is good at what we are not good at. I am always grateful. I think this is close to a miracle.

The tips and criteria for choosing a partner will surely change depending on what you want to do. But if there was such a story, I hope it will be of some help.