MBA1145 Q&A Wednesday: How Do I Break Up With My Business Partner?

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Visit Dell.com deals. Hey O welcome to the Hundred Dollar MBA show where business owners get stronger every single day with our daily 10 minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of the $100 MBA, a complete business training and community online and today's episode is a Q and a Wednesday episode. On our Q and A Wednesday episodes I answer a question from one of you, one of our listeners. If you have a question you want to ask, just email me over at Omar MBA Net and we'll answer your question right here on the show. Today's question is from Doris and Doris asks how do I break up with my business partner? Oh, this is a tough one because if you have a business partner there's a good chance you've been working with them for quite some time. And it's just like any relationship, breaking up, saying goodbye or ending that relationship can get difficult so you want to make sure you do it right. I don't know Doris particular situation, but I'm going to advise you what I think you should do regardless of what your situation is with your business partner. You've both invested so much into the business, your identities are all wrapped up into the business so changing that could be a bit difficult and it could be A bit painful. So we want to make sure we do it right. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. So Doors asks in today's Q and A Wednesday, how do I break up with my business partner? Now, I'm not sure what the specific situation like, if this is a good situation. There's no hard feelings that if you approach your business partner, they're going to be totally fine and supportive, or if things are going to get nasty. Regardless of what the situation is, whatever your relationship is with your business partner right now, before the breakup, I highly recommend you consult with a lawyer, a business lawyer. You want to make sure that you know what's going to happen before it happens, what your rights are financially, how things are going to change, what you're going to have to do to facilitate this breakup. Do you need to sell the business? Do you need to sell your portion of the business? Will your partner have to buy you out? What are the legalities involved? Do you need a plan for the future past this breakup, past you leaving the business? Or. Or maybe you're not leaving the business. Maybe you want to buy out your partner. You need to make sure all of this is ironed out before you even approach the situation. I know this sounds strange, but you need to know what you're dealing with before you approach your partner. Why? Because once the breakup happens, they're not obliged to do what's in your best interest. Things change when a breakup happens in any relationship, you start thinking about yourself. And that's natural because you're not going to have to be responsible for thinking about anybody but yourself. So get some professional advice about how to do this legally, as well as what's gonna happen with you and your business and your finances. You wanna make sure that you're protected and that you do the right thing. Now, once you've consulted with a lawyer, they're gonna tell you, here are your options. This is what's gonna happen. This is the best approach to take with your business partner legally. At that point, my advice is to have a transparent conversation with your partner. Listen, you might be interested in going your own way, not because the partner is a nasty person or they're not doing a good job. Maybe you just want to do your own thing. Maybe you're looking for a change. Maybe you want to get out of the business and start something for yourself and it's not personal at all. But maybe it is personal. Maybe you just don't want to work with this person anymore. Maybe they're holding you back. Maybe they're holding the business back and you want to, you know, take the business to the next level, and you'd like to buy them out. Whatever the situation is, this is the time to be honest but diplomatic. All right? You don't have to be brutally honest. No one says you have to hurt anybody's feelings. This is where the diplomacy comes in. You have to see things from their perspective, from your partner's perspective. This might be a shock to them. This may be news to them. They may not be prepared for this. So you want to make sure you have an honest conversation and let them know that you're going to give them time to prepare. I would definitely write down what you're going to communicate in this conversation. Why? Because when you write things down, you can analyze the way they sound. You can edit it out, you can say, no, I don't want to talk about this. I want to talk about that. It allows you to craft your message. There's only one chance at this. Once the words are out of your mouth, it's over. You have to make sure that you do the right thing. You say the right things, come in with the right intention, and try to make it as amicable as possible. If for any reason things get nasty, you can always get your lawyer involved and have them represent you. But if you can avoid that, that's the best situation. You have to remember, your business is like an entity. It's like a possession, like a house or a car, and each of you have a portion of that value. As soon as this news drops, you and your partner is going to be like, hey, what am I getting out of this? How am I going to make sure I get the most value? I don't get a raw deal. So start with that. Say, I don't want either of us to have a raw deal. I want to make sure that we're both comfortable when this happens. And this is a smooth transition. My third piece of advice after getting professional help from a lawyer, being transparent, having an honest, well thought out conversation, is to think about your own personal plan. What's gonna happen to you? What are you gonna do once this is said and done, what's your next step? For many of us, this might be the most difficult step ever, because, hey, you have to redefine yourself. Many of us are defined by the business that we've created. Our brand, our personal brand is wrapped up into that business. So we have to start anew, start getting mentally prepared, and ask yourself, what's the next step? What's the next chapter. What does that look like? Visualize that and. And start taking some steps forward. This is why building a personal brand is so important. I've talked about this in previous episodes, but having a personal brand allows you to leverage your own personal identity in any situation, you are you. That's not gonna change the businesses you run. That can change. I also would make some notes about why you're doing this. Why are you breaking up with your business partner? What are the things that are upsetting you? What are the things that you're unhappy about? Why are you looking for changes? The reason why I'm asking you to ask these questions of yourself is because you want to make sure you're super clear on why you're doing this. And this is just not some sort of move you're making out of frustration in the moment. Also, you want to make sure that you don't repeat that mistake. You might, you know, break up with one business partner and see a new opportunity down the line where you can team up with somebody else and that person's not a good fit. But because you're so excited in the moment and excited about the idea, you say yes and you sign on the dotted line. By analyzing why you're making this decision now, you can use that information to make better decisions in the future.

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Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide, based on the February 2025 Nielsen report. If you decide to break up with your business partner, understand that this is going to be a process that can take months, even years to actually legally formalize. In that process, you're going to still have to make sure you do the right thing for your business. Serve the customers properly. Serve your employees properly. You want to leave the business in the best shape possible because hey, of course you want to keep the value up so you can make sure you're getting a good deal. But also you want to do the right thing for your business partner, especially if you're leaving the company. Also, if you start just giving up, that can really hurt your case for a fair piece of the pie. Not all business breakups are nasty. A lot of them are totally fine. But I gave you these pieces of advice to just protect yourself and to protect the the interests of your business and your business partner as well. You want to make sure everybody involved is okay, and you want to make sure you're doing the right thing. Take ownership of the situation and have a logical plan forward before you have that conversation. Thank you so much for listening to the Hundred Dollar MBA show. If you have a question you want to ask on Q and A Wednesday, just email me over at omar100mba.net we'll answer your question right here on the show. Before I go, I want to leave you with this Business relationships sometimes are even harder to deal with than personal relationships. Your career history comes along with you for as long as you're going to be working. If you start a new business or partner up with somebody else or be interviewed for some sort of show, people are going to ask you about what happened and why you decided to break apart. People don't really ask that in personal life about personal breakups. In business, your past often makes up your current identity, so make sure you do it right so you have no regrets. All right, thank you so much for listening to the $100 NBA show. I'll check you in tomorrow's episode. I'll see you then. Take care.

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