So you are in this relationship – and everything is
wonderful and fabulous and you can’t imagine not having this person
around. Sounds like a love story right?
Believe it or not you can feel this way about your business partner. And just
as you have that happy, everything is wonderful period in your love
relationship; you can have it with a business partner. But what happens when the magic wears off or
things just aren’t going as you expected and one of you wants out?
When we meet with any business owner and there are partners
involved we advise that they ask the tough questions ahead of time, when things
are good. How will we end this
relationship? Who gets what if one of us wants out or if one of us dies? There are lots of questions around a relationship
that have to be answered NOW. What you
don’t want is to be answering these questions when you might be at an emotional
point in your relationship.
Make clear up front how a buy-out will take place and spell
out the terms. Also make clear what happens if a partner dies. Does the family have the right to take that
family member’s place or can the remaining business partner buy out the family
share of the business? Get a lawyer
involved if you can afford to do that.
Make sure that you are both happy with the end result because you don’t
want to be unhappy if it comes to an end.
Suzanne Cormier
Executive Director
BizWorks (Small Business Incubator)
Follow Suzanne Cormier on Facebook and
Twitter @BizWorksCenter
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