in this video i want to give some advice to entrepreneurs if you are a person who's starting
a business or thinking about starting a business or perhaps going into partnership with somebody
then what i have to say in this video might be of benefit to you people approach me all the time
with queries and questions about starting their own business they've come across my videos on
youtube i have a lot of videos on youtube about small business entrepreneurship and so forth
people know as well some people do anyway about my background in small business since 1986 and
so what i have to say about small businesses of interest to them and of benefit i hope
so people pay a lot of attention and then they contact me and say oh i saw your video
on youtube about business or small business or whatever and they contact me and they might be
looking for a partnership agreement or they might be looking for a shareholders agreement
or they might be looking for me to cast my eye over at least for a shop unit or a new business
that are taking over perhaps a coffee shop or something of that nature and in each case when
i give them the quotation because i understand and know what's involved they don't they disappear now
that's fine i have plenty of clients and whether i get i've plenty of business of plenty of clients
plenty to do but the point i'm making is that if you are going to start a business and you're
entering into a partnership a proper partnership agreement is going to need to be drafted correctly
and it is only when a dispute or a row arises later on that that partnership agreement will be
scrutinized very very closely and will be relied upon in relation to a shareholders agreement
precisely the same principle applies it'll be scrutinized and reviewed very
very closely by solicitors probably if a dispute arises down the road it's only
when a dispute arises that you really want your agreement to be robust and to stand up
to scrutiny so when you're starting off in the full flush of friendship and enthusiasm
for your business and so on it's understandable that you might say
me and mick or me and mary were great friends and all we want is a simple one-page agreement
or something of that nature that quite frankly is not a position that is not the case that is not
what you need and if you think you do then you're making a mistake likewise with casting my eye over
a lease for example for some sort of a business of commercial premises it's not enough for me to
cast my eye over the lease if fundamentally the person who's giving you the lease a doesn't have
the consent of the landlord or b there may well be a planning issue or c may not have good title
or d may not have a lease that was granted from a person who had good title so lots of things can go
wrong but in order to address these issues at the outset and to do things properly you will have to
pay a solicitor pay an accountant pay tax advisor to advise you on different aspects
of the startup of your business and if you can't afford that if you simply need or can only afford
to have someone cast their eye over an agreement in some sort of a very cursory fashion or make a
very simple partnership or shareholders agreement that will simply disintegrate under pressure then
you are probably not ready the time isn't right you need to wait because you cannot rush headlong
arse over heels into starting your own business if you simply cannot afford to obtain
decent legal or taxation or accounting advice because it is so fundamental to your business
it's so fundamental to your success that you cannot cut corners so yes i can give
you a one-page partnership agreement but it will be useless and i won't do it yes i can
give you a one-page shareholders agreement but it'll be useless and i wouldn't do it and yes
i can cast my eye over at least but it will be as useful to you as a chocolate teapot quite frankly
so if you can't afford professional advice at the outset
it's too soon it's too soon hang on wait another while because the agreements will be scrutinized
closely by lawyers when there is a dispute or if there's a dispute and inevitably people change
their circumstances change their relationships change and disputes can happen fairly easily
human nature is human nature hope you find this video useful if you do i'd appreciate
if you give it the thumbs up down below thanks a lot