Unhappy with business partner, opportunity to gain a new director

Seebin

Hi all,
I have reached the end of my patience with my business partner. Terrible attitude, constant negativity, hostility and complaining. It's been going on for years. Employees have raised similar complaints about them as well.

I had a big talk with the person not long ago and really believed they'd make a big effort to change but unfortunately they've slipped back into their old habits.

My main issue at the moment is that they contribute nothing to business growth/development. Every idea and implementation of improving and growing the business has been mine. They won't do anything other than the day to day, expecting me to do conceive and implement literally everything else. It feels much more like tolerating a disgruntled employee rather than having someone there on your team who is pushing and growing the business. Frankly I'm running very low on motivation at this point. Things are stagnating and I'm not sure if I have the capacity to push things on.

One employee however has been absolutely amazing. Very dedicated, very hard working, gives more input with ideas and improvements than biz partner.

I'm considering offering this person a % of the company (docked from both our %s, which co-directory will agree to if I decide it's what should be done). Partially because I don't want to lose them, and partially because it could bring more energy to our setup and reduce the impact and negative influence of the current co-director.

Just wondering if anyone has been in this spot before. I know that even if we offer them a % that they're not obliged to continue working for us full time, they could get a job elsewhere and retain their partial ownership.

My ideal would be to buy the other person out, but funds aren't available for that and I don't think they'd agree to it because I think they would not want to work elsewhere where they'd be more accountable for poor attitude etc.

Is this business partner also here on boards ? Did you consider the fact that they could be reading your post? Your attitude towards them is quite judgemental. I am putting you on 'Ignore' so that you cannot PM me too.

Very odd post. If you are going to contribute to this thread again, please keep it helpful.

The Gloomster!

Seebin

Deleted User wrote: »

Is this business partner also here on boards ? Did you consider the fact that they could be reading your post? Your attitude towards them is quite judgemental. I am putting you on 'Ignore' so that you cannot PM me too.

Okay? I had no intention of PMing you?

You're entitled to your view of my post. Judgemental perhaps, but I've kept it all anonymous and I don't expect we're the only party in a situation such as this.

Gloomtastic!

If you are currently 50/50 partners and move to 40/40/20. If you keep the new shareholder on your side, together you can out vote your current partner on every decision.

If he stupidly allows this to happen then maybe he deserves it.

I think you need to speak to someone professionally about this. Keep it all professional and legit.

Seebin

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

If you are currently 50/50 partners and move to 40/40/20. If you keep the new shareholder on your side, together you can out vote your current partner on every decision.

If he stupidly allows this to happen then maybe he deserves it.

I think you need to speak to someone professionally about this. Keep it all professional and legit.

The thing is, the person is super passive anyway. I get final say on everything anyway, because they have no interest in any biz development. They only work on their day to day duties (which could be fulfilled by an employee) and don't contribute anything beyond that.

Gloomtastic!

Would the employee have access to funds to buy out your partner’s holding?

That way you still get them invested in the business without costing you anything. Win/win.

Alternatively, have you considered professional help with your partner? They sound a bit depressed.

lastusername

This is only a problem if it looks like your sense of motivation or desire to grow the business is dependent on what your business partner does or doesn't do.

But it isn't, because all of that comes from within, luckily.

It's not dependent on the whims of someone else or how motivated or active they are.

Another way of seeing it: what if growing the business or being a successful company or business owner didn't hinge on another person, and what they did or didn't do?

If in five years the business is a massive success and has grown rapidly, will it be down to this one person...or something else? Or maybe a combination of other factors?

Seebin

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

Would the employee have access to funds to buy out your partner’s holding?

That way you still get them invested in the business without costing you anything. Win/win.

Alternatively, have you considered professional help with your partner? They sound a bit depressed.

Employee wouldn't have the funds to buy the partner out I don't think. I'm also not sure how they'd feel getting more involved in the company with this partner involved, and maybe that's going into an area I'm unfamiliar with (from a technical point of view), i.e would the employee then be an equal with the current partner, and thus not have to tolerate things the way they currently are, by having more autonomy and influence, etc.

I don't know if they're depressed or not but it's just gone on too long now and frankly it's starting to wear me down too. I was thinking about it more last night, that if the employee was onboard as a director I feel it would lift a weight from my shoulders, it wouldn't just be me vs current partner and we could operate more as a team.

I try not to judge people on any individual incidents but more how they handle things over a longer period of time. I've given the person tonnes of space, tolerated many week-long sulks and blow ups and all the rest. I've had talks with them about the dynamics which concluded very amicably and positively etc, but again it just keeps going back into the same habits and at this point I've just had enough, it's not up to me to babysit them, and if they were contributing more I'd probably have more patience but at this point I'm done.

lastusername wrote: »

This is only a problem if it looks like your sense of motivation or desire to grow the business is dependent on what your business partner does or doesn't do.

But it isn't, because all of that comes from within, luckily.

It's not dependent on the whims of someone else or how motivated or active they are.

Another way of seeing it: what if growing the business or being a successful company or business owner didn't hinge on another person, and what they did or didn't do?

If in five years the business is a massive success and has grown rapidly, will it be down to this one person...or something else? Or maybe a combination of other factors?

Good points, and I used to have lots of motivation to continue to put energy and thought and ambition into growing the business. Most improvements have been met with resistance or indifference by biz partner and I struggled on despite feeling annoyed that I had to do it all solo, or was often met by thoughtless resistance just because it upset the status quo. Despite all that, the business has grown, processes are far better, the day to day is way less demanding than it used to be etc. I don't know if my partner has any appreciation towards that, but all I hear about is constant complaining and finger pointing if anything goes wrong. I'm burnt out at this stage and quickly running out of energy to continue to grow things. I feel a new director would bring more life to the business.

antoinolachtnai

You need to deal with your company’s problems, which will probably mean you buy out your existing partner.

You should not bring a new director or shareholder into this mess.

You need courage, an accountant and a solicitor. At this point you do not need a new party involved except to the extent they can facilitate a buyout.

boring accountant

Find an accountant with experience in partner buyouts. Solicitors are more expensive and only required for more complicated setups.

sysprogrammer

Does this partner provide any useful function to you ? and how did they achieve partner status ? (did they invest capital).

I use a profit sharing model with my employees, so long as they are working for the company.
This is not an equity share, but just as motivating. And it may work for this trusted employee.