Living the life of an entrepreneur is exciting, challenging, rewarding and fun, and when it comes time to take your ideas and business to the next level – choosing the right team can make or break your path to success. Finding the right people to partner with or hire isn’t easy, so here are some things to look for as you assemble your own dream team:

1. SYNERGY: I know it’s a buzzword, and I’m not real big on buzzwords, but synergy is the #1 thing to look for when picking your startup partners.  Unless you’re starting an accounting firm, there is very little reason for an accountant to form a partnership with two accountants who have no other major business skills.  You want to find people who compliment your skill sets, and fill in the gaps that will be crucial to your business.

2. TRUST: No matter how good of a job you do at picking your partners, there is always the potential for something to go wrong.  People change, situations change, and people have a tendency to behave differently when money starts rolling in, so you may not be able to foresee the future in that regards.  However, if you are even remotely uncertain about the trustworthiness or the ability of your partners to get the job done at the onset of starting your business, my advice is to protect yourself the best way you can by not getting involved.  No level of intellect, experience or dedication is a substitute for honesty and trust in business.  And, your intution is usually stronger than you think.

3. EXPERIENCE: This is a tough one, because many fantastic businesses have been started by young people with a big brain, a dynamic personality, and very little business experience.  However, the people who can make that happen the first time around are few and far between and you will likely have to have a certain level of experience in business to avoid common pitfalls with your startup.  If you don’t, you will be best served by partnering with someone who can help you in this area.  Or, if you are the person with all that experience, you might be fine to pair up with someone who is young, energetic, and eager to learn from you.  Either way, make sure your leadership as a whole has enough experience to get you through each of your crucial business stages.

4. COMPATIBILITY: Simply put, some people get along and some people don’t.  I’m a pretty good guy and I think all of my friends are pretty good people, too.  But, that doesn’t mean that all of them get along with each other, even though I get along with each of them just fine.  Some people are Type A or B; some people are a Type that deserves a letter further down the alphabet, if you get my drift.  It’s important to pick people you get along with for your partnership.  Later, you can’t expect every employee you hire to be your best friend.  But, when you’ve got 2, 3 or 4 people starting a business, you’re going to spend a tremendous amount of time together.  If you wouldn’t spend an hour or two at a bar or on the golf course with each of your partners, chances are, 14 hours crammed into a proposal writing session is going to suck.  Make sure your personalities are compatible and you should be fine in this area.

There are a lot of things to consider when choosing partners for your business, but I think these four sit at the top.  If you have any other criteria you think deserve a place in the Top 5 or 10 , I’d love to hear about it.

Joey Flores
EVP of Sales and Marketing, StartupArmy.com

Startup Army is a team of consultants highly-trained in turning ideas into products, sites into conversion machines and platforms into profits. Our team can turn a concept into a scalable product design, develop it, create your marketing roll-out strategy and execute on it while training your team on how to take over when the dust settles.

Every year, the Dr. Seuss classic “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” sells close to 300,000 copies, primarily because it’s one of the most popular high school and college graduation gifts in the US. Thanks, Mom, Dad and Grandma! Now, I can go off into the world and achieve! No offense to the Dr., but here are 5 real graduation gifts – for the millions of college graduates entering the worst job market in decades – that are bound to be more helpful than a book written for 3rd graders:

1. A Subscription to a Business or Trade Magazine

2. The YSN Premium Career Planner

3. Business Cards

4. Business Clothes

5. A Smart Phone

Read the full article for examples and ideas of great graduation gifts.

YSN – Expert Advice on Career Advancement and Tools for Professional Development

As a VP-level professional with two-foot dreadlocks and a tendency toward wearing flip flops in the office, I couldn’t pass up the temptation to chime in about Ellen Gordon Reeves’s new book, “Can I Wear My Nose Ring to the Interview?”

Fifty years ago, a person would have to be crazy to tell young people entering the job force to be themselves if being true to their style meant flaunting their dyed hair or odd piercing.  However, Reeves’s book couldn’t be timelier.  In addition to providing invaluable information about networking, crafting a winning résumé and creating an elevator pitch—things we try to impress upon young people daily here at YSN—the new book encourages young people to be themselves and seek out opportunities that make sense for them, which is crucial and all too possible in the 21st century and the age of the internet.

One reason this book stood out to me now more than it might have only one month ago is because, a few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending the Anaheim DECA conference for young entrepreneurs and professionals.  Somehow, I was mistaken as a suitable career mentor and was asked to talk to graduating high school seniors about pursuing their dreams.  A young kid, also with dreadlocks, came up to me between sessions and asked me if I thought having dreadlocks would affect his career possibilities.  He was from the South and had obviously been met with some skepticism by potential employers.  With only a couple minutes to chat before the next session, I told the young entrepreneur that, if his dreadlocks meant something to him and were part of who he was, he shouldn’t cut them just to please potential employers.  “If an employer doesn’t like dreadlocks and dreadlocks are an important part of your identity,” I said, “in the long run, they probably aren’t going to like you and, even if they do, you’ll probably resent them and the job from day one.”

The kid seemed gratified to see that someone else was having some success and staying true to their own style, and was even encouraging him to do so.  It was actually a pretty cool moment and one of the better ways for me to be a mentor – staying true to myself in the process.  That’s why Reeves’s new book gets two thumb rings up as far as I am concerned.  A million people can give career advice, as my mentorship status shows, but a book that encourages people to be themselves in their careers is a breath of fresh air and a perfect guide for young people trying to achieve true happiness in their pursuit of success.  It is obviously something that weighs heavily on the mind of creative and unique young superstars and I’m glad this kind of advice is being pushed out through traditional channels.  Cheers, Ellen!