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independent partnerships

was thinking of getting together with a couple guys i know and starting up a a new location in a town about 15 miles from my current location i have about 90% of the equipment and they have starting capitol together we have about 40yrs experience in the industry between Dom, Pj, mazzios and PH

was wondering if anybody has any partnerships that actually worked

thanks
 
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Make sure you all understand what each others responsibilities are going to be.
Make sure everyone understands the finances involved.
Make sure they understand there may be losses.
As long as everyone is on the same page, it can work.
 
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HEY FATBOY. Yea in business with brother-in-law ( wife’s sister husband ) for 20 yrs. Wife and sister brother-in-law and I were all equal partners. Partner ship worked well all that time. Yea we did have words of and on but all in all we got along well, and when we sold were still friends. It may have been that we were all over the hill when we opened and intelligent enough to understand and were able to deal with the pressures as they arose, We were both retired and drawing pensions, so money was never a problem. We worked free till we recouped our original investment. If memory serves ( most times of late it don’t ), opening expences were $20,000, so there was no strain.

The biggest problem we had was working together,and we solved that by agreeing to work week about, him and his wife one week asnd me and wife the next. Gave us the needed time off and allowed us the rest up period old farts like us need to carry on. Starting up with no debit and not having to draw a salary makes the world of difference when ones trying to build the business.

After 20 yrs, and clinbing to nearly 80yrs, Partner came in one day and said hey are we ready to sell yet? we sat and talked it over and decided it was time. I was only 78 and feeling like 50, no medical problems or physical problems mental?. I’m out of the pizza business but not sure if i’m over it or not, that’s why i’m hanging round these pizza boards
reading all these posts and wondering what i would do in some of these situations.

Hey sorry for all the rambling on just ment to anser your post and say YES a partner ship will work if they are mature enough
Old doughball

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Make sure that you are all able to make it work without drawing any money out of it at least in the beginning. Three people trying to live off a starting pizzeria will be impossible. It sounds like the others have the capital. If you need money and are going to being working the store solo make sure that salary is in the original budget. I opened with a partner who did not need any money from the store and my living expenses are next to none and it has worked well with all money going back into the business. If we were both trying to live off the business we would have failed in the first year
 
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Nothing says “We all understand” like a well-written and signed partnership agreement. I would recommend getting an attorney to draft what you guys all agree to. Include an exit plan . . … selling, bailing out, financial collapse, etc.

Having a clear, effective written business plan for this location will also help clarify what everyone expects and is expected to do. Write it down, or it ain’t a plan.
 
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In between reading the thread and going to find an example post Nick pops in and types my exact sentiment!!!

http://www.pmq.com/tt/viewtopic.php?t=7988 is an excellent example of why a well written partnership agreement is needed. Who’s going to do what, when, how and why. How is pay, repayment, losses going to be paid/funded etc. How to do terminate, leave, sell on etc etc.

As I said in that thread I’ve seen 1st hand thriving businesses turn to nothing due to fallouts, dis-agreements, forced exits and deaths so a bit of agreement before hand between the parties involved and documentation by a competent attorney would be a wise starting point!
 
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Plan on it failing. Write it down. If it survives, wonderful. If it does not, you will be glad you had a solid agreement.
 
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I don’t know if you are using the word “partnership” literally as the form of entity you are considering or generically meaning that you and these other guys are going to do this together.

I suggest that you speak to both an accountant and an attorney regarding choice of entity. Depending on how you plan to direct the cash flow from the enterprise (assuming success) and what what changes in that area you forsee over time, you might come to different conclusions about which choice is best.

I will be surprised if you end up choosing “partnership” as it tends to have disadvantages in liability/risk management and the same advatanges it offers in flexibility of $$ disstribution exist in an LLC. If that flexibility was not needed, an S-corp or LLC with S-corp election offers some additional interesting tax benefits.
 
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Good point. A partnership makes little sense now that we have LLCs. Income flows like a partnership, but the corporation is there as a separate entity.
 
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