Hello redditors I do a lot of reading but never post, and it just so happens I over looked going 50/50 with a friend that is going horribly wrong and I’m not sure how to proceed, backstory about 6 months ago me and a old friend were hanging out and I popped a idea into the air for opening a company mainly just throwing it out to see if he would think it would work come to my surprise he wanted in on the buisness but didn’t have funding and said he would (as I’m sure you can guess that never happened) he has no experience with computers but he is a solid how do you say? Worker bee, he can do one task at a time and does nothing in his free time, I’ve handled import of inventory, funding, SEO and sale streams, and I also handle the physical side with him of moving and making inventory (manufacturing) but now we’re at the point of scaling and it’s time for us to put our money together to get large inventory’s sent into (Amazon) and come to find out he just had his car repod, has no money from the money we made from the company already, now I’m sitting here asking why the hell did I put myself in this situation, we have no formal operating agreement (I know, another rookie mistake) I have brought up previously that the work flow was VERY uneven I’m working circles around him day and night and I’m im burnt out, I brought this up to him this morning and I brought up the fact I want to buy out because it’s been 6 months of the same thing with no changes, his response was a outrageous number for buy out and him proceeding to yell at me saying he works more (I can assure you that is 100% not the case) being as I pay the rent completely for the spot we use to manufacture as well as what was stated above. My worry that out of spite he won’t come to a resolution and force me to dissolve?
What should I do in this situation? he won’t pay for mediation or arbitration and I am done letting him leech off what I built, What do I do???
PS I’ll never do a 50/50 again
You receiving some very bad legal advice that could make your situation worse.
Don’t start a company with the same name. That’s a breach of your fiduciary duty.
Don’t just lock him out. That’s probably not legal.
You didn’t indicate how much money you’ve put into this, or how much the business has earned, or even which state you’re in.
Find a business attorney in your state. You may have to pay for the hour, but without the size and location of the business, there’s only so much that can be offered.
Okay great I’m in Florida, money was about 2000$ put in but if we’re counting everything else (rent for the business place, all subscriptions, accounts , me putting money up for inventory) then upwards of 12,000 while he’s out not a dime in , the attorney I talked with after hearing some comments here said to write one up including some important stuff regarding no contest, no trying to go for old customers, stuff along those lines, so I let sounds like my options are to try to come to a conclusion rationally with him privately if not then attorney it is
But couldn’t you look as the money you’ve put in as loans and expenses, and make sure they are reimbursed before anything is reported as income and shared with him?
That is very true honestly I’m going to ask my attorney about that one this morning I haven’t though about that.