An acquaintance approached me about starting a gym since he knows I have plenty of equipment and he has a vacant building. The building needed a lot of work and isn’t nearly ready. Some of my equipment needs work and I’ve been working on it when possible but apparently not fast enough for him.
I found out he was in the middle of filing bankruptcy on another business about which he neglected to inform me until after I committed to the deal which gives me concerns about possible issues later on due to this. We had a heated argument over the phone last night and now I’m re-thinking the whole deal.
We’ve both put money into this venture, but I told him that maybe I should just cut him a good deal on some gym equipment and let him do his own thing. It seems to me that we probably won’t mesh very well but I did have my heart set on this. I know this isn’t all that much info to go on but would appreciate anyone’s thoughts, experiences, etc.
If you’re fighting already you’ll probably save yourself a lot of headache by selling him your portion and getting out.
You even have to think about this, since he can’t keep his finances in order? It’s a no-brainer. Run Forrest, Run!!
its called due diligence. It looks like you didn’t do any of it. this sounds like a failure waiting to happen.
I would never go into business or have financial dealings of any kind with someone who’s personality I was uncertain about.
RUN!
Having your heart set on a business working will lead to many blind spots. 90% of all businesses fail. For reasons that you brought up in your post. If you lost some money, be thankful that you found out about your partner NOW, instead of later when you would have lost a LOT more. Chalk it up to a lesson learned and move on.
BTW, you can still open up a gym - just find a better business partner, incorporate as an LLC and set up an operating agreement from the first meeting, build a business plan together and have it reviewed by an experienced business person/lawyer and THEN start putting your time, energy and money into the deal!
Have a good business lawyer and a good accountant ready from the start as well. It seems like a lot of work and money up front, but taking the time to make sure things are structured properly from the beginning will greatly increase your likelihood of success. After that it’s just marketing and sales.
Good luck!
Sounds like you already know what you should do. the place isn’t even open and your already having issues with each other? AND you find out he ‘neglected’ to tell you he was declaring bankruptcy on another business?
Get the F*** outta there before you get burned.
I can sell him the equipment and recoup the money that I’ve tied up so far, so I’m not really worried about that. I realized he is just greedy and wants to throw something together to pay the mortgage on the building.
I didn’t mention that he is an attorney so he probably knows how to screw me around.
Thanks for the replies and advice.
[quote]belligerent wrote:
I would never go into business or have financial dealings of any kind with someone who’s personality I was uncertain about. [/quote]
Bingo. I have recently had to deal with something like this. If people are giving you initial signs that they are unreliable…listen to that voice in your head and move on.