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Business Attorney
06-07-2011, 01:44 PM
I know that many people here are firmly against taking on partners. Frederick, on the other hand, extolls the advantages that a good partner can bring to the business.

I just came across an article 10 Super Successful Cofounders And Why Their Partnerships Worked (http://read.bi/kX71Vw) that discusses why some of the most famous partnerships were successful. It is interesting reading.

MostHeather
06-07-2011, 02:19 PM
Thanks for that resource and for pointing out the benefits of partnerships. These relationships can be helpful for people that can't do everything themselves and want to be able provide a good product or service to others.

Spider
06-07-2011, 02:19 PM
Great article. Thanks for posting, David. These are just a few of the thousands of partnerships that have been successful.

tylerhutchinson
06-07-2011, 10:23 PM
Thank you for sharing. Although I seem against them I am not. I just state you need to know who you are working with and have every detail planned out before going into one. I have seen many succeed and many fail while at the same time ruining family/friendships.

Business Attorney
06-13-2011, 12:44 AM
Tyler, I agree that partnerships take a great deal of thought and planning. While there have been many successful partnerships, I have also seen many partnerships that have gone wrong. Some were maybe wrong from the beginning, but many started out fine. Having a partner can bring rewards but it also brings an additional risk that must be managed.

greenoak
06-13-2011, 09:55 AM
i count ours as one that worked and still is....... we would never have gotten this far as a one man show.... the total dedication of a partner is a wonderful thing....
but i sure would be careful jumping into one!!...so many go bad for so many reasons ..i might try for a project but not a full partnership at this point...

Spider
06-13-2011, 11:15 AM
Tyler, I agree that partnerships take a great deal of thought and planning. While there have been many successful partnerships, I have also seen many partnerships that have gone wrong. Some were maybe wrong from the beginning, but many started out fine. Having a partner can bring rewards but it also brings an additional risk that must be managed.I am inclined - as usual - to point everyone to the number of non-partner businesses that have gone wrong, have failed, have been wrong from the beginning, have had inherent risks. All businesses have risks. All businesses need careful thought and planning, not only partnerships. I do not believe that partnerships are any more risky nor any more likely to fail than non-partner businesses.

In fact, I would suggest there is greater security in a partnership than a sole operator business, and that a partnership is more likely to succeed than a sole operator business. It would be interesting if there were any statistics to say one way or the other.

Business Attorney
06-14-2011, 12:33 AM
Frederick, I don't know whether a partnership is more likely to fail than a single-owner business, but by saying "an additional risk" I did not mean to imply that it is more risky. It is a new risk, one that must be carefully considered and managed. It is likely that a partnership also reduces other risks, as you have noted. My point was simply that someone going into a partnership without recognizing the issues (clear delineation of duties and responsibilities, dispute resolution, compensation, buy-sell provisions, etc...) are likely to be ill prepared to deal with the problems when they do arise.

Spider
06-14-2011, 09:19 AM
I absolutely agree, David. And I didn't mean imply that there are no problems unique to partnerships. You and I seem to be on much the same page on this question of partnerships. It's just that, whenever the subject of partnerships in business arises, people pop up out of everywhere stating how terrible they are, how risky, how subject to failure, etc. - the typical knee-jerk reaction.

When a partnership fails, it seems the reason is always because it was a partnership. When a sole proprietorship fails it might be poor marketing, inadequate financing, no planning, or a thousand other reasons. Like, a partnership never fails because of poor marketing or inadequate financing.

Dreaminofthetropics
11-27-2011, 07:45 PM
A great article with good insights thanks for posting!