- 5,261
Partnerships suck.
In my first business, I involved myself with a local personal trainer and gym owner at 21 and leveraged his name and location to get me up and running.
We agreed to terms, but several key matters were not spelled out.
It ended ugly. He went outside the scope of the contract and demanded rent versus a revenue share, and effectively was using his space I rented (that was spelled out in the contract as mine to use alone) for his other trainers, blocking me out from training my clients.
I formally announced my desire to dissolve the contract, and informed him I was taking the clients (which I generated all on my own) without sharing any piece of the revenue, as I felt his inability to recognize and respect the contract, meant I could make some ballsy moves.
We shook hands and walked away.
Later that night, I received a call from his 20-something intern that I was not to come back to the gym, shorting me 3 or 4 days of the rent I already paid.
I called him at his home, and told him I couldn't believe he didn't have the balls to call me and sent his intern to do his dirty work. Needless to say, that's when he got ugly and honest with me. (Although I was having a panic attack and enraged, looking back I feel pretty good about myself at 22 standing up to a 55 year old, conniving douche-bag)
Moral of the story is that partnerships, much like marriages, more often than not don't work these days. Save yourself the agony and find a way to do business on your own, how you see fit.
In my first business, I involved myself with a local personal trainer and gym owner at 21 and leveraged his name and location to get me up and running.
We agreed to terms, but several key matters were not spelled out.
It ended ugly. He went outside the scope of the contract and demanded rent versus a revenue share, and effectively was using his space I rented (that was spelled out in the contract as mine to use alone) for his other trainers, blocking me out from training my clients.
I formally announced my desire to dissolve the contract, and informed him I was taking the clients (which I generated all on my own) without sharing any piece of the revenue, as I felt his inability to recognize and respect the contract, meant I could make some ballsy moves.
We shook hands and walked away.
Later that night, I received a call from his 20-something intern that I was not to come back to the gym, shorting me 3 or 4 days of the rent I already paid.
I called him at his home, and told him I couldn't believe he didn't have the balls to call me and sent his intern to do his dirty work. Needless to say, that's when he got ugly and honest with me. (Although I was having a panic attack and enraged, looking back I feel pretty good about myself at 22 standing up to a 55 year old, conniving douche-bag)
Moral of the story is that partnerships, much like marriages, more often than not don't work these days. Save yourself the agony and find a way to do business on your own, how you see fit.
