An effective business partnership can be immensely useful, whereas a failing business partnership can cause significant damage to your company. Initially, you and your business partner hit the ground running, you were both full of ideas and seemed to have a shared vision for the company.
Recently, all of this has changed. You suspect that your partner is no longer in the same frame of mind and that they are looking for a way out. How can you tell if this is the case and what can you do about it?
They no longer pull their weight
You form a partnership so that the workload can be shared. Each partner can play to their own strengths, leaving little room for weaknesses. This can be hard work though, there is no easy way to make a company highly profitable. In the beginning, you could not call into question your partner’s work ethic. They arrived at the office before you every day and were holding the door open for you as you left.
Now, you barely see them. You’re lucky if you receive a vague phone call for five minutes. They’ve been telling clients that they will get back to them, but the clients end up calling you. It’s safe to say that your partner is no longer happy and they are certainly not pulling their weight.
The ambition has gone
You and your business partner used to communicate every day about how things are going and what direction to take next. The emphasis was always on expansion. Now, these conversations no longer occur. That shared excitement that you had at the beginning of your venture is gone.
Utilizing Alternative Dispute resolution (ADR)
Sometimes, partnership disputes occur due to a simple misunderstanding that can be ironed out with a conversation. In other instances, the partnership has no future. In any case, it’s best to avoid litigation if you can. Instead, you may want to consider alternative dispute resolution services such as mediation and arbitration. Whatever you decide, make sure you have some legal guidance to protect your rights.