Have any of you worked in a partnership or do you only work solo?
 

If you worked with a business partner how did it turn out?
Did you sign an agreement or was it just a handshake? Is it working out or did you decide to stop the partnership?

Do any of you partner with someone you've never met face to face, over the internet?

I did, until I sold my business to my manager who later became a partner and then a friend. In my case the partnership worked out great. No handshake agreements should even be considered. Have every agreement drawn up by an attorney. I am aware that more partnerships go sour than not.

always try to work solo

best to work on this theory....'a business partnership is like a marriage' - so would you marry anyone you hadn't met personally?
It does depend on the level of partnership I suppose.

I've worked solo most of the time in this biz, however there are like 2 people I would ever consider partnering with...

I'm sure progress happens a LOT faster in a partner, that's why I'm gonna give it a shot this year.



Does anyone have an example of someone that's made it big by themselves?

or

An example of someone that's made a significantly huge fucking pile of cash without going nuts working too many hours?

See I dont know which is more tue:

Two heads and sources of capital are better than one.

or

If you want it done right you have to do it yourself.

Well I'll state the obvious...
partners and staff can certainly make things easier....
but, they can also create a shit load of headaches too!

It is not that simple. In my case I spent about two years in the porn business fumbling around and not being very successful at all. I thought about quiting but instead decided to make a major investment (as I felt there was money to be made) but only if I could find a manager that knew what he was doing. I went through a couple of managers in a rather short period of time and was on the verge of going under when I found a manager that turned everything around. He was actually one of the .dot com layoffs and really had never delt with the porn business, but none the less proved to be the right person for the job and he brought in techies, programmers, designers, and main stream photographers who lined up some models, etc. etc. He basically is the one that built and made the business, so when he asked for a raise I instead took him off salary and made him a partner. From all of this a friendship grew. My point is I don't think it is a good idea to go into a partnership just because someone may have capital to invest and you "think" he may have some expertise. My first couple of managers talked the talk but basically did not have any real expertise.

Heh... when I was first trying to get started, I had a partner. I had known him in person for a year, he had a lot of the skills that I lacked at that time, especially with graphics. Seemed like a really good match up.

About 6 weeks after the site went up, when I proudly announced that we had made a couple of hundred dollars each, in addition to the money earmarked to go back into the site, he threatened to sue me unless I either handed over the thousands of dollars he was just sure we must have been making or removed all his contributions from my site within 36 hours. :eek7

Needless to say, it was one of the worlds fastest total site redesigns. :cool-as-a

It is a matter of psychological 'style.' Being a control freak, I could never partner with someone in a biz. For my business model I found that it works better for me to pay people to do what I need done, leaving me free to handle what I really love doing: design and working with writers.

The key being this: if you love what you're doing, chances are you'll make a success of what you are doing. Many people I know function better in a 'partnering" situation, and I believe there are a lot of success stories in the porn biz that demonstrate this -- but for autonomous types, I think they're success is attributed to the challenge of doing things alone and benefiting from that position.:thumbsup

Yep been in two partnerships and are currently still in one, the problem comes from when 1 person does more work and the other starts living life, your doing 14 hour days and there doing 2-3 hours 5 days a week. Then you or them start to look around for extra ways of making money on the side and then it turns to shit.

my first partnership broke up by losing my best friend :( we get on ok now but it kinda killed it at the time, my current partnership is with my Brother and thats certainly not even right now either.

Keep it solo if you can, but its very hard to work by yourself, especially if you have motivation problems

Sammy

I have formed partnerships before it is not a very good idea unless he or she is related to you. My partners have all been com-plete fuck-ups. The best thing to do is to raise your level of expertese in the line and then go on your own.:thumbsup

95% with a partner. The reason is simple: I'm motivated more since I know there is someone else counting on me to get the work done.

sometimes takes awhile 2 find a partner but u can do it either way. dont jump into working with some1 on something new unless u hold all the cards.

:thumbsup

I'll second that, I was in partnership in a non adult venture a couple of years ago.

It only takes so long before one partner ends up putting in more effort than the other, thats when the partnership begins to crumble away, you think its not such a big deal at first but it eats away at you and your motivation and you will start to become bitter when your still dishing out an even share of the income and you know you did most of the work.

So many people in business warned me not to do the partnership thing, but the more that warned against it, the more determined I became to go ahead and make it work.

The fact that I was doing the webmaster job by night/weekend and holding down a full time management job whilst setting up the mainstream business on the side, made it difficult to manage it alone, so I thought about talking on a partner.

I thought I had the perfect business partner, she was skilled in the types of things required by the business and had studied similar stuff at university a few years previous, I thought I knew her fairly well, and I had worked with her for over 18months, she was a decent worker.

She was laid off from our workplace by upper management because of a downturn in the indusrtry and because I had been pondering a new business setup to diversify my income from the Adult stuff I decided then was a good time to approach her with my ideas.

Seeing as she was now out of a job and had lots of free time, it seemed to work out perfect. It was also an occupation she had always wanted to get into.

Anyway, 2 years and a shit load of stress later, It was obvious that the partnership had to end due to the typical problems experienced with partnerships.
I didnt like it but everything these other business people I knew had warned me about had just happened to me too.

I ended up paying her out based on the average hourly wage for that industry X how many hours she had worked and hadnt been paid for yet.

As we had re-invested money make into the company to help it grow, After she was paid out, there was nothing left for me except the stress of having to then sell the buisness.
I ended up selling it a girl that had also studied in this field and wanted to start her own business, she has taken good care of the customers and works hard so the business lives on with no hard feelings there.

Unfortunately its hard to say the same thing about my ex-business partner, when we started out we were great freinds now we hardly speak and when we do, its quite an uneasy situation..

I dont think I would ever go anywhere near another partnership again.

If you must do it, make sure you at least get something out of it and that you will not be out of pocket one cent if it goes sour.

Many people I spoke to lost money in partnerships, I was lucky I guess that I walked away clean but it took a toll on my health and my family. During and after the partnership I came to realise that these things were much more important than making money.

Be carefull !

:winkwink:

years ago i had this one partnership where i did almost all the work but every time this partner did something like mail a letter or pickup mail he would always say "ok I mailed a letter I mailed a letter, see you are not the only one working"

I got rid of the partnership within 3 months

I've always found partnerships to be a huge fuckin headache :(, but they can be good for tax reasons...

All our companies are owned by my brother and me. I know that many people had bad experiences with running a biz with family members but in our case it's been working well for quite some time now :)

We took other partners aboard when we founded our companies in two other countries and in both case it didn't work at all...

me and my friend nobody else

If you're going to form a partnership, I second the notion to do it all via a written contract (with a lawyer) so both parties know who is resposible for what parts of the business.

Aside for just writting up the contract, I also believe in taking responsibility for your actions. Set up:
A. Goals
B: A plan of action for reaching those goals
C. Deadlines for those goals

Thereby, if one partner has set forth a particular date/time to have a certain thing done, than it would be clearly outlined.

One must also be aware that to effectively run a business with a partner, there must be a line of communication involved.
So, if one person ends up doing all the work, while the other person lives life to the fullest and starts to use the income that is being generated from the business as a cash cow, then that would allow you to say.."hey bastard, why in the fuck am I doing all the work and you're not!"...

Then again, you could also establish who wil do what in the written contract, thereby freeing yourself (and a whole lot of your hard earned money) up to let that person go. Also, the contract could give 'provisions' as to who can cancell the partnership and in doing so, what monies would be expected as compensation.

I know this sounds very 'corporate' but I know that as long as both parties know what to expect going in, than it just makes it that more easy to succeed.

Oh well, just my $:2 cents:

Later

Tekart

Solo, or with a partner? Personally, I go for B/g...

Er. Seriously, though... I have run my sites along with my partner (girlfriend) since the beginning, though usually she is more of an unofficial partner. Since very early on, I have worked with business partners, mostly with a past silent partner, and since the merger, more closely with the guys at DarkDollars. I think its good to have partners, I can't do everything myself.

I partnered with a guy on one project and it worked well as we had skills that complemented each other.

My only advice is to get a partnership agreement drawn up, my partner passed away suddenly and now 8 months later the funds in our joint account are still untouchable as we had agreed on dual signatures to access the account.

"partnering" with people through the web is a waste of time, money and nerves

It can be accessed by just you if you have a death certificate, I've done it on a joint account and the other passed away, I just took in a certified death certificate and they accepted just my signature for access to transfer the account to just my name.

Also:
SOLO - no partner or employees.....

One Boss
One Employee

It's the only way it works in any business as far as I think...

Just my thoughts...

I wish it was that simple, the signatory rights to the account are assigned to the deceased parties estate, I can't touch it until the estate is settled, and then only with the co-operation of the benificiary of the estate.

i'm definitely *not* into partnership. just the way i operate.

If you have the time, patience and money...stay solo.

I am strongly against partnerships. I generally will not even consider it unless I absolutely need a resource that a partnership can offer. Otherwise, I'm not prepared to give up shares in a company I own. I see too many people partnering up together just to have less work, not because they need each other.

WG

Question:
How many would take on a partnership if that person merely wanted to provide the necessary funds in exchange for a small return on the investment?

Would this make you more open for consideration???

I would consider it only if it was an absolute necessity. If I could take loans, make installments, or reduce costs or anything else, I would use those means first. I consider a partnership a last resort, not a first option.

WG

well, this is the problem. lets say you want to get a paysite up and going... and you NEED money. I can guarantee you that you won't find it from an investor UNLESS you have a track record. Out of any business, I think it would be safe to say that the internet is far more competitive and ever-changing than any other model in existence.

That being said, you still won't make it on your own. You will need to form stategic partnerships with those who you can trust. These partnerships will be based on business models you have developed on your own and that are proven. Any offer you make has to be 100% a win/win situation.