While good partners makes 1 + 1 = 3, more often than not the disagreement and arguments, while not always necessary bad, takes up alot more time then the execution of the things itself.

If going into a partnership, i strongly advise to own more then 50% to be the majority shareholder, it will not be that messy if it turns bad.

learning from experience, before you sign on the dotted line with a partner, you must first think of an exit plan, especially startups with friends. Never go into a partnership without settling the exit plan so the expectation is set right from day 1.

Try to assign some specific work (that he is capable of doing) to him and later decide if he is really worth!!! If he doesn’t complete the given work in given time … shoot and take it all yourselves.

That was 6 months ago when we ended it. Now, 6 months later, I want to know if I can legally pursue this business myself?

Thanks for your feedback!

So a friend and I decided to go into business together about 1 year ago, however, we have no LLC or signed document stating anything about our business, not even a disclosure or anything entailing our positions. In fact we have no paper work about our business with our names on it. Nada.

So to provide you with a short background of my situtation, a friend and I were passing around ideas for a business venture (internet based) about 1 year ago. After about 6 months of working on it, I started to become exhausted because I was doing much of the work myself (nearly 90%). I developed the business plan myself, created the name, developed the marketing strategy, I purchased and own the domain name and hosting space, I purchased and own the trademark and I even designed the entire preliminary site myself. Furthermore, I continually updated and worked on that site for 6 months straight staying up late hours.

It slowly dawned on me that my partner was never really contributing or pulling his half of the bargain. He would constantly show up late to meetings, would flake on simple tasks and give me the impression that he was fairly lazy and would rather party instead. He would always say that ‘he’s busy..’ or ‘I wish I could help you more’ but never would.

So to wrap it up, we are only on the idea stage and I wanted to resurrect the project by going solo. I want him involved but I don’t want him as a business partner. I would rather have him in another position where he wasn’t a decision maker.

Any comments or suggestions?

U need a team for moving out of early staged ventures to expansion. Can you really go public without partners??? NO!

However, one can propose starting alone and joining hands with employees turned trusted partners

Kudos to Brian for making my lazy brain to start crunching the extreme ideas. :-)

I feel so tired and sad today. First, I tripped over a chair because I am too busy reading a book. The pain was somewhat unbearable but brought up in a family who is serious and doesn’ t like to cause embarrassment, I kept quiet….

I just came across your blog and wanted to drop you a note telling you how impressed I was with the information you have posted here. I also have websites & blogs so I know what I am talking about when I say your site is top-notch! Keep up the great w…

Though I have not started any business yet I consider your advice worth considering.