3 Tips For Protecting Yourself When Starting A New Business Partnership
If you’re preparing to start a new business venture with a new partner, the way in which you start off this partnership can make your entire business relationship ultimately positive or negative. For many business partnerships, things can go wrong and each party could make decisions that the other parties don’t like. This could cause the relationship to dissolve. But if you haven’t protected yourself from this possibility, you might wind up losing a lot in the process.
To keep this from happening to you, here are three tips for protecting yourself when starting a new business partnership.
Get Everything In Writing
The very first thing you need to know about protecting yourself as you get into business with a new partner is that you should get absolutely everything in writing. This way, there can be very little room for misunderstanding or going back on what you’re already agreed upon.
While it can be uncomfortable to sign documents when you and your new business partner are looking to the future together and aren’t anticipating any issues coming between the two of you, it’s important that you both are protected in the event that something changes. To get this done appropriately, consider working with your own lawyers to come up with agreements that you both can be happy with and protect both sides fairly.
Make Plans For The Future
Although you and your new business partner might both feel like you’re in this for the long-haul together, it’s wise to think about how things might change in the future and how you’ll deal with these types of issues if and when they arise.
In general, you should think about how you’d handle things like the death of one of the partners, what you’ll do if one partner is incapacitated and can’t function in the business anymore, and how you’ll handle a partner wanting or needing to step away from their role in the business. By thinking about these things beforehand, you can avoid a lot of emotional choices that might be harder to make down the line.
You may also need to plan the future of the company in terms of what kind of advertising and marketing strategy you should pursue. If not completely, you may want to discuss a blueprint approach to your company’s future. You may even need to look for advertising space ahead of time by using real-time auctions, also known as an ad exchange. Ad networks, in addition to ad exchanges, are used to buy and sell inventory, and the two concepts differ significantly. As a result, you may need to decide which path you want to take in the future as a group.
Come Up With Ways To Settle Disagreements
Even if you and your new business partner have never disagreed on anything related to your business yet, it’s going to be helpful to come up with some ways that you’ll settle disputes when they happen, as they are bound to do.
Depending on the type of business you’re running and what seems fair to everyone involved, you might want to consider things like mediation, arbitration, or some other way of deciding who will make the ultimate decision about whatever issue you’re currently facing.
If you’re going to be starting a new business with a new partner, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you protect yourself and your future interests.
