Partnerships
 

Pitfalls?

Matt

If you own less than 51% you are SOL.

Regards,

Lee

SOL?

Partnership that's 50/50

Matt

shit outta luck

Shit out Of Luck.

Partnership are not always 50/50 btw ;)

If you have more to bring to the table than the person you are going to be partnering with you make sure you own a larger percentage of the business entity.

You could have a 99/01 partnership for all intents and purposes :2 cents:

Regards,

Lee

True, but how do you determine that when it's ideas? My thoughts are you pretty much can't?

Matt

Is it YOUR idea? If so then you are automatically taking more to the table from the get go.

Regards,

Lee

Some people don't value ideas, or at least don't want to give up equal % to the idea holder.

Matt

Thats their problem NOT yours :2 cents:

If you find one person who wants to partner with you, you'll be able to find more.

Regards,

Lee

That's a crock of shit. We from joint ventures/partnerships all the time in the mainstream world. If someone has an idea and not the funds, infrastructure, or resources to make an idea turn into a product/service, there is no way he/she is bringing more to the table. Having an idea doesn't automatically mean the person should have control.

Ideas are a dime a dozen. Money, resources, real working knowledge are not. What are you talking about?

amen

I have 3 partners in my current venture and it is understood that being the one who came up with the idea and will be doing most of the work I have the majority share. I have one partner at 20%, one at 15%, and one at 10%, I retain 55% for myself for the life of the business. The expenses however are paid as such as well. Each partner only pays his percentage of the earnings on expenses, leaving me with the greater income, and yet the greater part of the expenses as well. Its fair and everyone seems happy with it.

Obviously it depends on how much you are willing to sell-out your idea for.

As for me, ive never partnered with anyone using one of my ideas / concepts for less than 51%.

As i mentioned earlier.. partners, if you have a solid idea are a dime a dozen. If someone wants more control than 51%, then we move on to the next person :2 cents:

Regards,

Lee

Money, resources, working knowledge are also a dime a dozen if you have a solid idea / concept. Unless you dont know enough of the 'right' people of course :2 cents:

Regards,

Lee

Corporation is the way to go. Partnerships are for suckers.

Even corporations have some kind of partnership foundation to them.

We have 7 C Corps right now we own 3 of them outright, the others were formed as part of a partnership deal we have with other people.

Regards,

Lee

I was mostly wondering how people deal with non-compete and non-disclosure and such, since a lot of ideas / intellectual property gets thrown around and nobody would want anyone else to use those ideas / thoughts on outside projects.

How do you deal with that? A basic non-compete doesn't seem possible.

Matt

Depending on the idea/concept your lawyer should be able to draw up a NDA that is legally binding in most of the States.

We usually have a new NDA written for each business idea that way we can be sure that the NDA is not only legally watertight but that the NDA is current.

Regards,

Lee

It all depends...partnerships are like marriages....need much love or money to stay alive:)

Is it bad to start off with tainted love though? I think being bitter about anything will make for a very un-fun 'marriage' and could destroy someone..

Matt

partnerships are very funny because the amount of work putting into doing things is a perception.

to one person they are doing all the work, to the other person, its normal workload.. all perceptions.

best advice.. do it all your self, no employees, keep ALL the money ;)

Yeah - It's hard to do that when things were unclear to begin with.

Matt