ew business requires. In reality, most people are incompetent and looking for a free or low cost ride to success. While their intentions may be good initially, people, especially friends and family, often end up being the worst people to align yourself with in business. Most are incompetent, near-do-wells that bail when it comes time to perform. These incompetents don’t understand business, startup, management, marketing, finance, law, technology, Internet, or production, distribution and sales. They just want to ride your coattails and they would really be better of just getting a job and doing what 95% of people do—just follow the followers.

If you are contemplating setting up a business and taking partners in to help you, you would do well to give this serious thought before making promises, shaking hands or signing contracts with anybody.

Having been involved in a number of business startups, I have witnessed a phenomenon, which has proven itself again and again. People are great starters and lousy finishers and this is especially true for “business associates’ or “partners” who you may be counting on to help you start or operate your business.

You should keep in mind that nobody cares about your business enterprise more than you and the first mistake you will make is believing that others are willing to work as hard as you, give as much time, effort and/or money. At the beginning of a new venture, when hopes are high and enthusiasm abounds, you may be surrounded by people who agree with the potential success of your project and agree to help you. It’s after the business is started, when things don’t go as planned, when costs are high and sales are low or non-existent, that the real character of your associates will be revealed. This is why careful thought combined with the help of an attorney can be beneficial by drafting very specific partnership agreements to protect you and your business.

In general, you want a mutual understanding between you and your potential partner to be very specific regarding their role in the business, the services they will render, how they will deliver those services, hours of operation and potential ownership interests resulting from their contributions over time. And time is the key… you want your partnership agreements to be based on “performance over time” so that if a partner does not perform well over the period of a year, or two or more, you can be released from any legal and financial responsibility to them.

You also have to be careful about forming unintended partnerships too. If you make promises to people that you will give them a stake in your business for performing a service, you may be entering into an unintended partnership without knowing it. The best rule of thumb is to not make promises, verbal or written, expressed or implied without the help of an attorney. All of your conversations with others should at least be tagged with a protection clause to help keep you out of trouble- (make it clear at the beginning of all your conversations that legal counsel must approve everything you are discussing before it becomes binding on you).

What you want to avoid is partnering with inexperienced people—people who do not fully understand the commitment and workload a new business requires. In reality, most people are incompetent and looking for a free or low cost ride to success. While their intentions may be good initially, people, especially friends and family, often end up being the worst people to align yourself with in business. Most are incompetent, near-do-wells that bail when it comes time to perform. These incompetents don’t understand business, startup, management, marketing, finance, law, technology, Internet, or production, distribution and sales. They just want to ride your coattails and they would really be better of just getting a job and doing what 95% of people do—just follow the followers.

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that others are willing to work as hard as you, give as much time, effort and/or money. At the beginning of a new venture, when hopes are high and enthusiasm abounds, you may be surrounded by people who agree with the potential success of your project and agree to help you. It’s after the business is started, when things don’t go as planned, when costs are high and sales are low or non-existent, that the real character of your associates will be revealed. This is why careful thought combined with the help of an attorney can be beneficial by drafting very specific partnership agreements to protect you and your business.

In general, you want a mutual understanding between you and your potential partner to be very specific regarding their role in the business, the services they will render, how they will deliver those services, hours of operation and potential ownership interests resulting from their contributions over time. And time is the key… you want your partnership agreements to be based on “performance over time” so that if a partner does not perform well over the period of a year, or two or more, you can be released from any legal and financial responsibility to them.

You also have to be careful about forming unintended partnerships too. If you make promises to people that you will give them a stake in your business for performing a service, you may be entering into an unintended partnership without knowing it. The best rule of thumb is to not make promises, verbal or written, expressed or implied without the help of an attorney. All of your conversations with others should at least be tagged with a protection clause to help keep you out of trouble- (make it clear at the beginning of all your conversations that legal counsel must approve everything you are discussing before it becomes binding on you).

What you want to avoid is partnering with inexperienced people—people who do not fully understand the commitment and workload a new business requires. In reality, most people are incompetent and looking for a free or low cost ride to success. While their intentions may be good initially, people, especially friends and family, often end up being the worst people to align yourself with in business. Most are incompetent, near-do-wells that bail when it comes time to perform. These incompetents don’t understand business, startup, management, marketing, finance, law, technology, Internet, or production, distribution and sales. They just want to ride your coattails and they would really be better of just getting a job and doing what 95% of people do—just follow the followers.

l understanding between you and your potential partner to be very specific regarding their role in the business, the services they will render, how they will deliver those services, hours of operation and potential ownership interests resulting from their contributions over time. And time is the key… you want your partnership agreements to be based on “performance over time” so that if a partner does not perform well over the period of a year, or two or more, you can be released from any legal and financial responsibility to them.

You also have to be careful about forming unintended partnerships too. If you make promises to people that you will give them a stake in your business for performing a service, you may be entering into an unintended partnership without knowing it. The best rule of thumb is to not make promises, verbal or written, expressed or implied without the help of an attorney. All of your conversations with others should at least be tagged with a protection clause to help keep you out of trouble- (make it clear at the beginning of all your conversations that legal counsel must approve everything you are discussing before it becomes binding on you).

What you want to avoid is partnering with inexperienced people—people who do not fully understand the commitment and workload a new business requires. In reality, most people are incompetent and looking for a free or low cost ride to success. While their intentions may be good initially, people, especially friends and family, often end up being the worst people to align yourself with in business. Most are incompetent, near-do-wells that bail when it comes time to perform. These incompetents don’t understand business, startup, management, marketing, finance, law, technology, Internet, or production, distribution and sales. They just want to ride your coattails and they would really be better of just getting a job and doing what 95% of people do—just follow the followers.

them a stake in your business for performing a service, you may be entering into an unintended partnership without knowing it. The best rule of thumb is to not make promises, verbal or written, expressed or implied without the help of an attorney. All of your conversations with others should at least be tagged with a protection clause to help keep you out of trouble- (make it clear at the beginning of all your conversations that legal counsel must approve everything you are discussing before it becomes binding on you).

What you want to avoid is partnering with inexperienced people—people who do not fully understand the commitment and workload a new business requires. In reality, most people are incompetent and looking for a free or low cost ride to success. While their intentions may be good initially, people, especially friends and family, often end up being the worst people to align yourself with in business. Most are incompetent, near-do-wells that bail when it comes time to perform. These incompetents don’t understand business, startup, management, marketing, finance, law, technology, Internet, or production, distribution and sales. They just want to ride your coattails and they would really be better of just getting a job and doing what 95% of people do—just follow the followers.

ew business requires. In reality, most people are incompetent and looking for a free or low cost ride to success. While their intentions may be good initially, people, especially friends and family, often end up being the worst people to align yourself with in business. Most are incompetent, near-do-wells that bail when it comes time to perform. These incompetents don’t understand business, startup, management, marketing, finance, law, technology, Internet, or production, distribution and sales. They just want to ride your coattails and they would really be better of just getting a job and doing what 95% of people do—just follow the followers.

In summary, be careful what you say, make sure you flag your conversations with a legal protection clause to avoid unintended partnerships and make sure you get an attorney specialized in business to draft your agreements to help avoid being hooked up with an under performing dud. Startups are tough enough and you don’t need to drag dead meat around with you, right?

To your success!

Copyright © 2006 James W. Hart, IV All Rights reserved