I waqs wondering how many of you are in partnerships? And pro's & cons. As well as the safe guards that are a necessity. Am looking at an oppurtunity that everything looks good. And it would put me leaps and bounds and open up a world of contacts that would be difficult for me to get on my own. The other individual is a mirror image of the ethics and practices that I hold dear. For right now we would split up the city. Neither one of is greedy which from what i understand is a downfall usually.We are talking about spliting the city. We team up on marketing and leads. draw a line on the city. He gets the small stuff on one side I get the small stuff on the other. And we work together on the bigger ones. I could really use some feedback on this one. Dont hold back!!!!

Thanks

I was partners with my brother for a couple of years. It worked out pretty well. We split when I decided I wanted to give college a try. Looking back there was alot of unspoken pressure.

I have since opened a seperate company and still work with my brother on different jobs. Sounds pretty similar to what you guys are talking about, except instead of splitting the city, I take my leads, he takes his, and if the job looks more profitable with two men, one pulls the other in.

Would you share insurance, phone number etc.?? On the shared jobs, who would bid and bill, and how whould it get split? Who keeps the name if you two split?

I think it was Tiger's lawyer that said a partnership is like a marriage that you plan the details of divorce first.

We both have nextel grids...He has two phones I have three. Pool the leads split the city share the insurance and hold hands and sing kumbaya on the bigger jobs. Share the leads.

God this is all giving me a headache. My sleazeball employer that im getting ready to leave in 6 months......Is starting to look alright.

Hey, don't get discouraged yet. To me it sounds like it could be a great opportunity.

Don't think of it as end, but a means to end. Lets say you go for it. Don't look at it as a failure if it doesn't work out. As long as you haven't lost your shirt. That's why careful planning in the begining can pay off in the end.

But it is possible the symbiotic relationship could produce more for both of you than the sum of what each could do alone. I have found that many times with my bro. A job that takes me 2.5 days alone is 1 day with him.

Then there are the less tangible, like the lead that you didn't have time to follow up, that your partner did. Then you get 2 great leads from them. I have countless stories like that.

Sit down with a piece of paper and sketch out specifically what your duties would be, what his would be and how each other would be compensated. Do this more for you own sake...as an exercise to get your thoughts on paper. Then what happens if one puts in more hours than the other? What if one starts to slack under the other? These things are simple when one captian is steering the ship, but with both of you on the wheel you either have to spell it all out for each other or have a real intuition for what the other is thinking. Believe it or not, intution is how my bro & I still do it, but we already have similar DNA, think alike, and know each other vey well. We can work the same project without talking and it is like four hands, almost spooky. I don't expect this to be the case for most.

This way you won't have to pull your father out of retirement!

The only advise I can offer on partnerships is this:

Everyone must know their role.......

"Too many cooks spoil the soup", so who is the chef?


Dnk.....

Well put Jps1006. I wish I had a brother.

Dave

Dnkl's right, who is giong to run the show. If its not you...you have to be ok with the other guy making decisions. One partner has to be the leader.

Why not just agree to split the town as you described, keeping your buisness and "joint venture" the large projects. That way if things do not work out you havent' lost much.

Rob

Well Im the more aggresive of the two of us. But when he puts in his two cents. Its pretty sound and well thought out. So its a good balance. And yes we are spliting the city. On service and pairing up on the big stuff.

You guys have thrown some pretty good stuff out there....appreciate it.

I hate to be the only negitive person here but a partnership can be a bad thing as I have learned in the past. Actually it was a S corp split 50%.

It's like being married. Are or were you married? No 1 person has all control or makes a final decision. Eather of you can do what you want.

What would you do if your partner suprised you with "I decided I needed a new work truck so I got a loaded.." with the last of the cash? What would you do if you found your partner was just doing side work and had no work for the company. Or even worse using company accounts to buy that material. What to do if your partner gets lazy and sloppy? What if they turn out to be bad dealing with customers? Who dicides how much you will spend on advertising. How are you going to base your income. What if they don't put in all the extra hours you do? Will you want to work weekends if he can't even if you get paid the same.

Some people can change a bit in attitude between being employed and being an owner. Even if you worked a few side jobs with him the attitude may not be the same.

You may say we will just talk and make decisions together. That does not work so well when your biz is short on cash, and there are disagreements and other problems.

The difference if an emploiee has what ever problem you still can get rid of them. An emploiee does not make the final decision.

Like said before you may want to have 2 seperate companies. Have agreements to share advertising, work jobs together and what not. That way if problem you can walk away from him when the job is done.

Or you could try to hire him. But then you would need much more capital.

If you do a partnership ask an attorny about setting up a buy sell agreement. That way if does not work out you allready have it figured out on how to handle it.

Tom

saint,

You say your prospective partner isn't greedy. That's good and counts in his favor, but some other traits I would deem extremely important are: is he disciplined, does he have integrity? Also honestly assess how how you rank with these qualities. We all have thses qualities to a degree, but two partners should have a little more than most.

By discipline I mean the standard get up on time etc.. definition as well as the ability to seperate your emotions and ego from the situation when needed. As with all relationships between people, emotions untempered can blow a situation out of control, and feelings and expression tactfully reigned in can salvage and move forward constructivly.

Also as far as integrity, I'm talking mainly about doing what you say. That can be as much follow through with what you commit to as well as knowing whe not to commit (again restraignt and discipline).

Just a couple more things to keep in the back of the mind as you dwell on this.

Dave,

I am very grateful for my brother. If I can teach my kids to be friends and take care of each other to get the many-fold pay-off I have, as crazy as it sounds, it makes me consider having more, just to give that to them. But then I know plenty of large families where it doesn't go so smooth, so maybe the answer isn't in the numbers.

[This message has been edited by Jps1006 (edited 12-01-2005).]

Sincerity, is NOT always the same thing as reality. You may have located a potential partner who is sincere about honesty, integrety, and appears to be hard working, but he may actually not be any of the above when it gets right down to it. Tread careful here my friend.

Well I am taking a measure of caution.....The two small companies are staying seperate.We are dividing the metroplex. The only thing we are sharing is the marketing and labor pool. And coming together on larger jobs. Tax Id's seperate....Insurance seperate. Who pulls what on the bigger jobs depends on which side of town it is.