Fairness ratings. In the second exercise, the partners rate their satisfaction with the various components of interpersonal equity and answer one overall fairness question. This exercise is especially relevant for partners who have been working with one another for some time. How satisfied are you with what you are currently contributing? How

A Partnership Charter is not written in stone; it’s a living document that changes just as the individual partners and the partnership change. Partners must make a commitment to review it periodically and revise it as needed. The periodic reviews help ensure that partners continue to pay attention to any changes that are taking place before it’s

Good Partners—But Not Close Friends

Describing the operational roles in detail—essentially developing job descriptions—is key to working smoothly together for years to come.

Partnerships infused with a generous, altruistic, and benevolent spirit are not that common.

In rare cases, partners have buy-sell agreements in place that assign a value that no one contests. More commonly, however, someone disputes the price of the buyout, necessitating a costly valuation. Valuations often fail to settle the matter, though, because valuations are also frequently contested.

Why Do You Want to Own a Business?

They wanted transparency among themselves regarding their business lives and their personal and family finances. In addition to sharing financial goals for the business, they would jointly develop a goal for personal financial independence—that each would aspire to. They would not consider the goal satisfied until they all had achieved it. They

Our first rule was that owners always came last. The client, the company, the staff, the bank, and Uncle Sam always came first and in that order. For the owners to take dividends we had to have satisfied clients that paid their bills on time. Next, we had to have a company that was growing, in good condition, well equipped, well capitalized and