I don’t think firing someone should feel good. However, you need to get over it and recognize that the firing is required for your health, the health of your business and your other employees. Trust me when I say you would feel much worse if you allows a bad person to stay and it destroyed those other things. Suck it up, you don’t have the bandwidth to feel so bad.
I hate to agree with this, but OP is probably screwed. The idea that anyone can correct this or get the conman to stop is unrealistic and / or a massive time suck. Cut your losses and switch up your marketing / branding. Make absolute sure there this guy doesn’t have access to your updated information.
I’m sorry you’re struggling with this. One of my first employers taught me a very valuable lesson - don’t be friends with the people you work with.
It does mean that you have to respect the work relationship as a special type that is different from normal friendships and relationships of choice. This is a lesson you’d do well to learn because you have a problem.
You have a moral obligation to help your friend who’s suffering greatly from mental illness. This is in direct opposition to your obligation to maintain a healthy business for yourself, clients, family and other employees. It appears as though fulfilling one of these obligations may mean you fail in the other.
I cannot tell you what to do in this situation, but wish you well as you work to resolve it. I hope you respect and honor the work relationship in the future.
Ps. Some of my closest relationships are with those who work for me, but I never “hang” or engage in purely “social” engagement and none of us would ever confuse being friendly or close with being friends.
Tell him what you just told a bunch of strangers. Your relationship means more than the business and you’d like to find a way to get out and be the best of friends after.
The real question here is the financial side. If you want to get paid to leave early or bought out for an unreasonable number, yeah, that’s gonna sting. I think you should make bigger concessions than you think are fair, or even leave it up to your friend to decide if or how much this will cost him / her. If it were me, and the friendship was that important, I would think walking away with little to nothing would be the right thing. Anything above $0 is a win for you if the friendship remains intact.
Fwiw, while some may encourage you to continue, that’s actually how friendships end. It’s a good thing you recognize this now and you ought to have the courage and fortitude to address the problem now with your friend. Failure to do so will generate feelings of resentment because he knows he’s doing more and that’s cancerous.
Fix it now. Fix it generously. Retain the friendship. You can do this.
I’d like to hear 2 things before passing judgement:
Arranging a business partnership could, under the right circumstances, be complicated. If there are fees for incorporating your org and filing with the state and for an EIN, it’s not inconceivable that the bill went into a few thousand dollars.
A retainer for $3500 on a simple partnership organization would have been the first warning sign. So either you’re a mark and got taken or it’s more complicated than you’re intimating.
Trying not to pay your attorney is going to be difficult, btw. They have all the resources to get a judgement against you.
You should, as another person said, let them know a correction needs to be made for the unauthorized charges. Get an itemized bill whether it was or was not, then proceed from that point.
I would think a simple agreement plus all filings would run $2000-3000. Even the retainer was too much if you ask me.
I think this is fairly normal. You’ll grow into new circles with friends who don’t feel that way. It’s ok.