The following are a list of partnership business killers by entrepreneur.com.

1. Sharing capital instead of expenses
2. Partnering with someone because you can’t afford to hire
3. Lacking a written and signed partnership agreement
4. Overlooking a limited partnership
5. Lacking an out or an exit strategy
6. Expecting the friendship to outlast the breakup of the partnership
7. Having a 50/50 partnership

I would have to agree, to the extent that not having a plan for each situation is a dangerous situation to be in. While you might be the best of friends with or a spouse two your business partner, if things get fucked then you better have a plan on how to handle it. It’s a tough thing to think about, and you might even feel like you might be offending your partner by suggesting such a negative thing, but keep in mind that it is in both of your best interests to have plans in place.

An important document to draft up, agree to, and sign is a company operating agreement. You can find plenty of templates and examples online. If you can’t, email me and I’ll send you a few along with a guide on how to Google. Basically, this agreement should lay out exactly what the capital investments were for each partner, as well as terms on how profits AND losses will be distributed. It is also important to detail out circumstances and steps that need to be taken to dissolve the company. For example, you might have a clause that states if one partner moves to another state and is no longer able to continue his share of work in the company, then the company should either dissolve or his share of the company be bought by the renaming members for some set amount. The agreement should also state what voting and management rights each manager has. This will come in handy if difficult decisions have to be made down the road.

As always, consult an attorney before signing an agreement, even if you drafted it yourself. Have them look it over to make sure it will protect you the way you think it should in your state. Think of this as a business pre-nup. It’s never fun to come home and see your spouse sandwiched between three circus midgets, but if that were to happen, you will thank Buddha that you signed an operating agreement. er, pre-nup. You know what I mean.

Partnership Killers from Entrepreneur.com

These last two days I was back at my grad school doing recruiting at a jobfair. It’s surprising the amount of douchery that goes on at these events, and definitely does not help them get a job. I’ll try to list out some key things I noticed as do’s and don’ts.

Some Things to Do:

Know the company you are talking to. I couldn’t believe how many undergrads came up trying to get a job and didn’t know a damn thing about what we do. If you want to talk to a recruiter, at least learn about the services that the company offers and who they are.

Know who you are talking to. It made me smirk when the job hopeful would shake my hand and start off on the prewritten sell, then have to pause and look up at the sign for the company name. It went something like this- “hi, I am a senior in [insert major] and feel I would be a strong applicant for..[pause, look up at sign]…[company name]. Yeah…no thank you mr douche.

Eat a breathmint..or five. If I have to avoid inhaling toxic air and and getting lighteaded from lack of oxygen, I probably won’t be listening to your pitch. At least one recruiting booth will be giving away mints; go pretend you care and get some.

Some Things Not to Do:

Don’t make your pitch seem badly prerehearsed. It is a good idea to figure out what you want to say, but when you deliver don’t make it seem like you’re just reading off a sheet. I personally glazed over when undergrads started (badly) reciting their sales pitch.

Pay attention to the recruiter’s response. If I’m looking bored, please cut off your five minute long sermon of why you’re such a good fit. I was in the same spot as you before, so I know all the bullshit tricks. Don’t give me that bullshit because it is very easy to spot.

Don’t just try and whore yourself off to the company by going on and on about your GPA and you saving the dolphins last summer. Have a conversation with me, and it will be more likely that I won’t think you are a total douche king.

Don’t givr me a wacky handshake. When you shake my hand, give a good grip and pump once. This is so basic but so many people messed it up. I got every lame shake from the fingertip shake to 20 pumps to limp wristed shakes. If you have trouble, just practice with a friend..hand shaking is a very important protocol for meeting people, so learn how to give a solid handshake.

Don’t call me “buddy”. If I don’t know you and you are some freshman, I’m probably not your buddy. It is almost as annoying as being called “bro” by a total stranger. I feel like introducing my knuckles to your face when you call me buddy. Just call me by what’s written on my nametag and keep it at that.

There are many other things to keep in mind while working a jobfair, but these are the things that bugged me the most these last two days. Keep them in mind and just keep things relaxed. Have a conversation and be genuinely interested. Otherwise, you just come off as a douche, and that’s the note I’ll be writing on your resume.

On my way to starting up, I realized that partners can make a very large impact on your success. However, there is risk that this impact can be similar to an asteroid hurtling through the atmosphere and pounding you in the behind. So while the support and extra ideas make partnering up on ventures appealing, here are some things to consider first.

1. Consider this person’s character. How does he work? What are his values? Really understand the person and determine if he’ll be a good match. Just because you’re friends doesn’t mean you might be at each others throats in a month. This is hard I think for many to do, but the effort is worth it.
2. Trust - Is this person trustworthy? Does he have an honest character with good solid integrity? Getting screwed by a business partner ranks up there as a “crap that totally sucked” moments.
3. What happens if you or your partner gets into debt? If either of you are financially unstable at some point, what will happen to the business. While you can’t predict if this will happen, it’s good to think about and have a plan in place.

Check out an article by AllBusiness.com for an even bigger list. Past these considerations, if you do decide to move forward with a partnership, get everything in writing. If everything works out, great, but in case shit flies, it’s good to have a written plan and reference in place. This agreement should be live, meaning it should be updated as situations change for the partnership. The agreement should be fair for all parties and should reflect the effort, contributions, and risk each partner takes on.

There will always be risk, but thinking things through and having agreements in place at the start will minimize nastiness that might arise later down the road.

Many wish they had their own business once the daily drag of corporate life eats away a good chunk of their being. As such a person I want others who are in the same situation to prepare well before taking the jump. Since I’m still in process (not completely insane..yet), I can only offer what I’ve bumped into so far.

First, be prepared and understand you will lose current benefits like health insurance and 401K. Unless of course you didn’t have it anyway, in which case you’re a step there already. Health insurance is quite expensive, so make sure you can swing it.

Also be aware of what behind-the-scenes requirements your business will come with. For example, what licenses might you need? Will you need a certain insurance for something unique about the business (stuntman dying from being impaled by blunt object insurance, for instance)? How will you hire employees? This behind the scenes stuff requires a lot of research; know the business well before you start. Become an expert.

Finally, what is your revenue model? This is very important but it seems many don’t even consider it. There seems to be the thought floating around that if you do the business and work hard the money will come. Hard work is great for your work ethic, but if you don’t have a revenue model you’re likely to crash and burn. To start it helps to create a model of the business, and figure out costs, prices, and profits. This model will allow you to play with inputs to see how it affects the business. A lot of times this stuff isn’t intuitive, so making the model really helps you make fact based decisions.

These are just some of the foundations to starting. I’ll update as I progress; if anyone has thoughts on this please post in the comments. Best of luck! FREEDOMM!!!

Whether it be your family or newly acquired family (e.g., wedding, adoptions, abductions), it is common to eventually have someone in your family who just drives you insane. As I often get reminded, homicide is highly frowned upon illegal in this country and usually the person is not worth the angst. So before you whip up the rat poison margarita mix, take a breather and think about it. Something I read once really hits it on the (stupid) head -

For most people, dealing with annoying relatives or in-laws is like cleaning the toilet. It’s not something you want to do, but something you have to do.

Sometimes the situation is worsened if this pile of annoying is your spouse’s family. Your significant other may be the best most loving person in the history of man kind, but somehow they manage to be related to hell spawn. I’ve found it helps to always keep in mind that it is all temporary. The shithead leaving trash all over the place? The trash will get picked up and their poor hygiene will get them eventually. Maybe they’re eating all your snacks that you try so hard to hide. Eh, they’ll be gone soon, and your stash will once again be holy and safe. Hey, maybe you’re contributing to making them super fat..REVENGE IS BEST SERVED COLD.

Get very good at extracting yourself from any situation. This will come in very handy when you get so annoyed that your left hand reaches for the candlestick. Getting away from a sticky situation will give you time to breathe and think, and usually just let it go.

Many guides and articles online about the issue ultimately propose that you spend alone time with the
public disturbance. I however, tend to disagree. Once past a certain point of annoying, alone time can be catastrophic. I am in the standing that the best way to go is to try and make yourself laugh at the issue and put enough space to not let any issues erupt. Limit the contact, increase the breathing. And remember, no rat poison.

On my way to buy crap I didn’t need the other day, I tailgated a car that happened to have a great bumper sticker. All it had on it were the words, “It’s all Temporary.” That really hit me and made a lot of things click. Like when you’re trying to first ride a bike, and you keep falling on your ass, then all of a sudden you’re charging forward in a wobbly line. Kind of like that, but more useful.

A lot of times, we all get caught up with work and life stressors, and it gets us frustrated, stressed, and shortens our life. Globally, more than 3 out of 5 doctor visits are for stress related problems. Globally, 23% of women executives and professionals, and 19% of their male peers, say they feel super-stressed. While stress is useful in a fight-or-flight scenario, I find that most of the time I get worked up about something REALLY stupid (or someone really stupid). Seeing this bumper sticker put it all in its place. It’s all temporary. If you think about it, these three simple words make a lot of sense. It’s a common idea in Buddhism, and something that I’ve forgotten over the years. If some situation has you stressed out, just realize and understand that it’s temporary. It’ll be over in a few days, weeks, whatever, so really in the grand scheme of things it’s no big deal. Conversely, if it’s something good, also realize and understand that it’s all temporary so you should enjoy it and cherish it.

If you can get into that frame of mind, I find that it calms you down and makes difficult situations go down easier. While I still haven’t been able to stop all stress in my life, keeping these three words in my mind have helped tremendously.

I usually don’t write about random stuff, but I got something in my email today that gave me a chuckle. This email was my usual Buy.com daily spam (you buy that one gift and they spam you forever), trying to sell me hard drives (less than 50 cents a gig!) and other varied electronics. I typically glance at the preview that GMail gives me, then automatically hit the Delete button. But today, something looked off. Curious now, I click to read the full mail. Hi-FI headphones, don’t need..Gateway notebook (didn’t they go out of business?)…Kingston USB drive, have one…then in larger bold font, Trojan Elexa Ultra Sensitive Lubricated Latex Condoms - 24 Pack $10.00. With free budget shipping no less! Sandwiched between the Logitech Cordless desktop set and the HP Media Center Desktop, was a deal on a pack of meat wraps.

Not that I’m phased by emails peddling atypical consumer wares; I doubt any of our inboxes escape member enlargement ads or melon growing potions (let that one sink in). What gave the chuckle was that this was 1) the only item in a list of about 20 that was in larger font and in bold, and 2) it was in a Buy.com email. Given that Buy.com is mostly for geeky guys (come on, admit it, if you’re in the market to purchase extra large computer case fans and custom glowing PSU connectors, you’re pretty geeky), it made me chuckle to think Buy.com was trying to sell a pack of boner armor to geeky fellas who probably don’t need it (or maybe they need it even more?). Anyway, enough rambling now. Back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Buy.com

When it comes to buying a house, especially the first one, max budget should very clearly determined. I have quite a few friends who bought something way above what they can afford and are getting screwed hard by it, no lube.

SmartMoney.com published a short article and calculator yesterday to help estimate what your cost ceiling should be. Read More

At some point in your 20s you’ll most likely have to move. Maybe you’re moving out of your parents’ basement, or just to another apartment, or even maybe you’re looking to buy your first house. Whatever the reason, there’s plenty to think about before you make your move. One of the really important things to get clear is the safety of potential move spots.

One handy thing I happened upon is the state crime reports. The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program was conceived in 1929 by the International Association of Chiefs of Police to meet a need for reliable, uniform crime statistics for the nation. Read More

So last week my friends and I decided to visit the Animal Rescue spur of the moment. We’ve been following a super long detour to get around some major highway construction (great job PDOT..great job) and were feeling and bit loopy. Immediately after parking in their minuscule parking lot, we saw a new intake German Shepherd in their outdoor area, looking dejected as homeless dogs tend to. Pulls at the heart, no? If that wasn’t enough, we walked in to see the rest of the dogs. Rows of dogs, locked up in concrete cages, with a blanket over a formed plastic bed. Then we came upon Halle, a 5month old Saint Bernard Great Dane mix. Sad, but full of puppy spirit, and great looking too. If we hadn’t left at that point I would have had another dog in the house. This situation should sound pretty familiar. But then I thought..why are there so many dogs in shelters? It sucks!
Read More