You may have launched your tech startup with a former co-worker or friend. Or you and your brother decided to live your longtime dream of running a family restaurant or construction business together as partners. However, now a few years in, you are having serious problems working together.
You butt heads all the time. Or your business partner slacks off and doesn’t do the work you need him to. Or you don’t have the same vision for your business’ future. What should do now, especially if you really can’t work together anymore?
Dealing with business partnership disputes
You will need to work with an attorney as you either seek a way to resolve your business partner dispute or dissolve your partnership. You may be able to resolve your business partnership dispute if you can better clearly define what each partner’s job responsibilities are and each person’s role in making company decisions. Or you may need to add another party to your business, someone to manage it or a board to help make decisions.
Dissolving a business partnership
However, if you and your business partner truly no longer can work together, or one of you wants to end the business partnership, you may need to consider dissolving your business partnership. One way to do that if you or your partner wants to exit the business is to create a buy-sell agreement with an attorney’s help. That way, one partner can buy the other partner out. Or you may need to negotiate dividing the business, so you can both move on and run your own operations.
You also may need to consider selling the business if you both are ready to move on or liquidate it if your business is failing and you and your business partner want to end business operations.
Whatever path you choose if you and your business partner can’t work together anymore, it won’t be easy to move forward. However, the future of your business and the future of your personal relationship may depend on it.
