Question

I went into business with a friend of mine a year ago. At first everything was going alright and we were both contributing equally. As time goes by though, I feel like I am shouldering most of the work. How do I get my partner to put in his share of the work and/or how do I call this whole thing off?

Answer

This is a common problem. Firstly what you should do when starting a business with another person however friendly is set up clear and DOCUMENTED details of each persons responsibilities, their profit share and financial remuneration. If your friendship means enough to you that you are willing to go into business together then do you want to risk it on a falling out over business.

There are a number of scenarios open to you, but I assume that you want to do one of the following:

1. Remain in the business and increase your partners contribution.

2. Sell up or close the business.

3. Buy your partner out and continue with the business on your own.

4. Change the contribution that your partner makes and the corresponding reward/salary/profits that they receive.

Firstly you should try and resolve this matter amicably. Ask your partner to meet you for dinner in a quiet restaurant to discuss your business and how you both want to manage it in the future. Your partner is probably aware that they have not been contributing as much as they have in the past. If your partner is not keen or is afraid that your anger will be expressed, then just point out that you value them as a good friend and do not want to lose such a friendship over business problems that you are sure can be sorted out very easily.

Please remember that your friend could be having problems of their own. Their reason for contributing less may be:

1. They dont actually realize that they are not contributing as much as they used.

2. They may have family, personal or financial problems.

3. They may feel that you are taking over more work as you prefer to do so.

4. They may feel that you are edging them out of the business.

5. They may have lost interest in the business.

6. They may not be able to do the work they are assigned and are leaving it rather than look inefficient.

7. They may have different ideas to you as to what the business should be doing now and in the future.

For your meeting, please give them time to prepare as well. They may have some comments about your contribution! Are you sure that you are not pushing your partner our, because that is your take charge personality? You should have a rough outline of what you want to both talk about. This should include:

1. Where you both see the business progressing for the next year and then in the near future (say year 2 and 3).

2. Whether you both feel that you want to continue in partnership.

3. What you both would like to do to make this happen.

4. What you both feel are your particular strengths that you can each bring to the business.

5. Do you both feel that the business responsibilities are equally allocated.

6. Are there any suggestions you can both make in order to improve both the business and your respective contributions to it.

7. How you can solve the problems you currently face.

During the meeting, please remember:

1. Your friendship is important to you.

2. Your business is important to both of you.

3. Dont accuse your partner.

4. Listen to their side of the subject.

5. Aim to get some agreed resolution if only how you are going to dissolve the business.

So in summary, be friendly, look for solutions, listen to both sides.

Lee Lister

Lee Lister is Management Consultant and Program Manager with more than 25 year's management and consultancy experience and more than 20 year's program and project management experience in projects for Banking, Finance, Insurance, Leisure and Government bodies. She also have more than 10 years bid management experience ranging from bids for medium companies to large international and infrastructure bids.

British born, Lee received her BA(Hons) Financial Economics from the University of Essex. She went on to work in or for a considerable number of countries within Asia and Europe as well as Australia and the United States. While building a name for herself through helping company restructure, change management and project management consultancy, Lee became a well-known figure for her skills in analyzing, problem solving and trouble-shooting. She has consulted for many major industries, including banking, telecommunications, insurance, transportation, leisure and governments from many different countries. Some of the companies who have benefited from Lee?s expertise are Hewlett Packard, Siemans Nixdorf, Electrolux and the Philippines government.

Whilst working in the Far East she became a recognized expert on preparing and evaluating large World Bank Proposals (infrastructure projects within developing countries). These accomplishments called upon the skills of bid and project management, risk assessment, contract negotiation and supplier management and required dedicated work to very tight time scales. This expertise was acknowledged by an invitation to be the principle speaker at an International Business Development Conference in Washington, USA. She has also consulted at very senior level in several countries.

She owns and manages two companies, Biz Guru LLC in the USA and Biz Guru Services Ltd in the UK as well a considerable number of profitable web sites. She works almost entirely via the internet, visiting clients on site during major consultancies and training. Her Internet skills span from when major companies first started to consider obtaining their own web sites. During these years, she has kept up to date with the rapid changes on the internet, including the dot com boom and the resulting bust ? which her own web based companies survived.

She regularly consults, writes and lectures on business, bid management and marketing and has published numerous courses and books.

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