Perfect Strangers, Perfect Partners

Many warn against going into business with friends or family, so why not partner up with someone you don't know? Here are some people who did just that - and highly recommend it.



NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- If you are worried about going into business with your brother or best friend, consider the person standing behind you at Starbucks. Sometimes a stranger can be the best bet.

Barry Murphy and Mike McGuirk barely knew each other before deciding to go into business together.

They were victims of corporate downsizing, and met in the reading room of an outplacement center while looking for new employment.

But being over age 50, they both knew it would be hard to find new jobs.

"I was looking into a Batteries Plus franchise," Murphy explained. "Mike looked at it over my shoulder and we realized we had a mutual interest in that type of thing."

"Then one thing led to another," Murphy said.

The two believed that McGuirk's business skills coupled with Murphy's retail experience would work well together, and they were right.

Since opening a store together in 2002, business has been booming. Sales have increased steadily over the last five years and their Batteries Plus location hit $1 million in revenue last year.

Now Murphy says partnering with someone you don't know can be an advantage. "Sure there was a small element of luck, but we did enough preliminary research to be confident that it would work."

"Hooking up a partnership with someone you don't know is comparable to an arranged marriage," according to Jeff Elgin, chief executive officer of FranChoice, a franchise consulting firm.

"Sometimes it works out great, but there's certainly a risk involved in that."

To mitigate the risk, Elgin recommends spending a lot of time upfront, as Murphy and McGuirk did, talking through different business scenarios, including an exit plan.

As with marriage, it is hard to determine how business relationships will work out in the long run, Elgin said.

"Sometimes it works out great but other times they end up being nightmares."

Melanie Lamar, 30, and Brian Turner, 29 are betting on the former. The duo lived in the same apartment complex outside of Washington, but never really knew each other until one day when they struck up a conversation in the parking lot.

"We had a common interest in investing in a business, that sort of sparked things," Lamar said.

Lamar told Turner all about her desire to open a Right at Home franchise, which provides in-home personal care for seniors, and "I thought the concept was great," Turner said.

"Then we talked about our strengths and came to the conclusion that we complimented each other very well," he added.

A year and a half later, the business is up and running. Lamar supervises the staff while Turner handles marketing and finance. Although the franchise has yet to turn a profit, Turner expects that will happen within a year.

"We're both really glad we made this decision," he said.