Partners take percentage of work I do.... ??

[RoseDukes]

Hello everyone, this is my first post. I wanted to bring this to others before I seek legal council, if needed.

I am a partner (papers have not been signed and I'm still waiting on the legality of that, but have acted as such for several months) of a very small virtual assistant company. I've been with them for nearly two years.
The two partners are husband and wife. Husband is active duty military and wife has a full time job with the city. I am the only other 'employee' and work the business full time. Of course, the wife would argue that she does all the behind the scenes stuff, like writing the business plan.

My question is that currently I am concerned with how I get paid. I only get paid for client work I do. Right now I make about $40 a week on a regular basis, but I get random projects worth more. We are about to start doing grant writing where I'll be paid big money and the issue is going to REALLY expand.

After a recent argument, I finally got the other two partners to agree to put 10% of money earned into a business bank account (currently money earned goes to our own incomes... anything business related like marketing comes out of pocket). From the remainder, 80% goes to me, the one doing the work, and 20% goes to the partners.

My husband and I argue about this and I haven't been able to find work, even though I have a Master's degree, so this is the best I can do... hope for future projects. But once I start writing grants, I'm going to be essentially paying their bills (she complains how they are hurting for money... as am I considering I make $40 a week!) so she's looking forward to when I start writing grants. Grants are going to bring in lots of money and a large portion will go to them and I'm the one who does all the work. **Note... she has not directly stated I will pay her bills... but let's just be honest... it goes into their pockets, not the business. **

When we had our argument, they said they get profit because they started the business and if there weren't any profit to them, what's the point of the business? Being someone who has never owned or started a business, I don't know how to properly argue with that.

So please.... help me out... is it fair that they get a portion of my income when I'm the one doing the work? How is this supposed to work?

Thank you

[nealrm]

What are your partners bring to the business? Do they have the contracts with businesses? Do they have contacts that bring in work? Do they have some type of special software or hardware that adds value? If so, they should be paid for that and a 20% split is about right. If not, look into doing this on your own. It doesn't take much to start a VA company, however that also means the competition will be fierce.

So what is your master's degree in?

[Fulcrum]

Before you go any further, get those papers drawn up and signed and make sure it's for a quality entity (LLC, corp, s-corp). You also need to make sure that your partners are not committing your time and money, on your behalf, without your knowledge (downfall of a general partnership - written or verbal).

On the other hand, why do you need to do this business with partners?