TIL my old partnership agreement was a ticking bomb from 2009

Back in 2015 I was running a small print shop in Akron with a guy I'd known since high school, and our handshake deal plus a napkin note came undone when he wanted out after we landed a $40k county contract. He claimed he owned 60% because his name was on the lease, and I had no paper to fight it, so I paid him $12k to avoid court and started over solo. Has anyone else gotten burned by a verbal agreement they thought was fine back then, and what did you do to lock things down after?

2 comments

2 Comments

matthewmartin1mo ago

But wasn't the napkin just proof you both trusted each other back then?

fiona9851mo ago

@matthewmartin that's exactly what I thought back then, that the napkin meant we trusted each other and that was enough. But trust doesn't pay rent or sort out who gets what when someone changes their mind, and that's a hard lesson I had to learn the expensive way. Now I won't even do a side project with a friend without a one page agreement signed, and I keep every email about money or work in a folder. If the other person balks at writing it down, that's the first red flag you should pay attention to.