What 70% of Partnerships Get Wrong — And What It Means for Your Exit

In my last newsletter, I shared the story behind Riverside Home Care and our exciting partnership, and what one of my partners in Riverside Home Care, Michele Simmonds, so perfectly named "Purposeful Partnership." I also referenced a striking stat from the Harvard Business Review: 70% of business partnerships fail — usually due to misaligned values, unclear roles, or ego conflicts.

Over the years, I've had several home care founders reach out with the same question: "How do I make sure I don't end up in a bad partnership?"

Basically, they are asking how they don’t end up in the 70%. This is an important question and one that I would like to use as it relates to choosing what kind of buyer you sell your agency too. 

Here is why. Selling your agency to the wrong buyer is just a failed partnership by another name.

The Clarity Problem

In my bestselling book EntreThrive, the first law I introduce is EntreClarity — the idea that when an entrepreneur's vision for themselves and their business is so vividly powerful, they're willing to push through any obstacle to achieve it. Clarity is the oil change that keeps the engine running.

But here's what I've noticed with founders who want to exit within the next 3-years: they have clarity about wanting to sell, but almost no clarity about who they want to sell to or why it matters.

They haven't defined their Guiding Truths for this next chapter.

And without that clarity, they default to the most common — and most dangerous — decision filter: whoever offers the highest number.

Price Is Not a Partnership Strategy

Most private equity buyers and roll-up groups know this. They lead with price because they know most founders haven't done the deeper work. They haven't asked themselves the hard questions:

What do I want my legacy to look like after I hand over the keys? What happens to my team — the people who trusted me? Do I want my name erased, or my story honored? What does my life look like on the other side of this deal?

These are EntreClarity questions. They're the same kind of questions I ask founders to wrestle with when building their Guiding Truths — the personal declarations that act as a lighthouse in a storm and a compass when others try to disorient you. Your Guiding Truths don't just guide how you build your business. They should guide how you leave it.

Without that clarity, founders end up choosing a buyer the way too many people choose a business partner: based on surface-level attraction rather than deep alignment. And that's exactly how you land in the 70%.

To access my free powerful Guiding Truths Ai tool, go to: https://www.aaronmarcum.com/guidingtruthsform

It only takes 30-60 minutes to build out your own Guiding Truths and it will be one of your most meaningful activities of the year!  

Start With Alignment, Not Offers

This is precisely why we built the Founders Proven Process at Riverside Home Care. Stage 1 — The Right Fit — isn't just about your financials. It's about evaluating mutual alignment on values, timing, and vision. It's the same principle that makes purposeful partnerships work: shared core focus, complementary strengths, and ego subordination for a greater mission.

Think about it this way. If you were entering a business partnership, you'd never skip the step of making sure your potential partner shared your values. You'd want to know how they handled conflict, how they treated people, and whether their vision for the future looked anything like yours.

Why would you hold a buyer to a lower standard than a partner?

Your Breakaway Starts Now

In EntreThrive, I talk about breakaways — those decisive moments where you distance yourself from your current self and move toward a bigger, better version of who you're becoming. Selling your agency isn't just a transaction. For many of you, it's the most significant breakaway of your entrepreneurial life.

And like any breakaway worth taking, it requires preparation. The founders who exit well — financially, emotionally, and with their legacy intact — are the ones who started getting clear before they sell. They defined what mattered most. They evaluated potential buyers against their values, not just their valuations. They refused to let urgency replace clarity.

The founders who land in the 70%? They waited until they were burned out with a broken business, took the first serious offer, and realized too late that price without purpose is a hollow victory.

One Question to Ask Yourself Today

If you're a home care founder thinking about an exit in the next few years, here's where I'd start:

If your buyer's values and your values were placed side by side, would they match — or would you be hoping nobody noticed the gaps? Do you have stated Core Values to match a buyer against? Get clear on your Guiding Truths by using my Guiding Truths Ai tool. https://www.aaronmarcum.com/guidingtruthsform. Lastly, write out your “Success Criteria” of your future buyer and align that criteria with your Guiding Truths. 

Then of course, start working on processes, systems, and profitability, so the right buyer will be motivated to give you the exit you have worked so hard to achieve. 

Get clear on these answers now. Not when you're exhausted. Not when the LOI is on the table. Now. Because clarity isn't just the first law of thriving — it's the first law of exiting well.

Your life's work deserves more than the highest bidder. It deserves a purposeful partnership.

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If you're a home care founder in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming, or New Mexico and you'd like to explore what a purposeful exit could look like, visit https://rivhc.com/founders to learn about our Founders Proven Process — or reach out to me directly.

— Aaron