Archive for September, 2011

Buying Out a Bad Partner

September 20th, 2011

Business partners are a good idea when the addition of a new person can help with financing or operations. However, a bad business partner can hurt your business and signal that it is time to look at merchant services loans to buy that person out. There are times when it may be better to take control of the reins, and a lack of money is not a good reason to delay. Here are a few reasons to consider buying your partner out.
You Do All the Work
Silent partners are excellent when they’re just helping with financing, but an active business partner is expected to contribute to the actual running of the business. Restaurants and pubs are often joint ventures, sometimes even family businesses, but when one partner ends up doing all the work it can lead to work issues that threaten your business. If they don’t want to do anything, it may be in both your interests to find a way to cut the ties where you can both be happy.
Fraud is involved
Some partners are a nightmare and end up trying to defraud the business instead of running it. If that’s the case, it may be easier to pay them off than to try to take them to court for fraud. Bad press from an owner that is abusing company funds is not good press for your business. It may be necessary to involve your lawyers, but eventually you may have to come to some agreement where the partner’s shares are no longer under his or her control.
Retirement on the Horizon
When a partner starts to lose interest in the business, it may be they secretly want to be bought out but don’t want to leave people hanging. It can be tough for everyone involved, but no one works forever and when it’s time to retire, you will want either look for new partners or take on total control of your company by buying the partner out.