Partnership

Simply stated, a Partnership is a specific form of business organization in which each of the partners shares in the revenue and each is liable for 100% of the debts of the company.

There are lots of different kinds of partners like limited partners and general partners and managing partners but that's for larger organizations with investors. But look into it. Wikipedia is a good place to start but don't stop there.

If you don't do anything special but just go into business and start selling stuff on your own you have a sole proprietorship. Most of the time a sole proprietorship is all a person really needs. If you want investors (really?) or to employ people (watch out) or you want the business to outlast your death, you might want to go for something else. It yuse to be you had a standard C corporation, sub-chapter S, or partnership to choose from. Now there's a buch more. LLCs seem to be popular.

The word partnership is often used to mean a collaboration, as in "We're partnering together." To be more accurate a "partnership" is a form of business organization defined above. where two or more people act together in a business and each derives income You should contact an attorney to determine whether you want to be in a partnership. You should also ask an accountant. If you ask Tim Bosworth he's almost always recommend against it.

But, if you do, after talking with your attorney, decide that a partnership is the right way to go, you had better make sure you have a good partnership agreement. This specifies what you're doing, how you're making money, how the revenue is to be accounted for, who is liable for what, and what happens should the partnership agree to go out of business or if one of the partners is unavailable to the partnership because of illness, accident, death, or fraud.

Also, make sure you know the person with whom you're going to form the partnership. Make sure they are trustworthy and will be able to work together. You don't have to be close pals. If you don't know them or they have less than great credit don't go into business with them. If they're that important take them on as an employee or outside vendor with your relationship covered by a good employment agreement and a non-disclosure agreement.

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. And go read my mysteries, The Case of the Kearney Music School Murders and No Stop on Red, both available at Amazon.com. You can read the first one for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.