Partners: the rules to agree on day one, before the first money arrives

Partners who fight about money in year three are rarely fighting about money. They are fighting about what was never said in year one: who decides in the end, who looks after people, who holds the numbers, and whether the other can carry the load when one of them is worn down.

What the partner charter tells you

In Team fit, create a team with the "founders" template, invite your partner, then open the partner charter section, pick the two of you, and read once (300 units, within the Business plan's daily units or from stored units). You get:

• Who holds what: leading, planning, execution, people, systems, each with the name that should hold it.
• The final say on money and contracts, and who should hold it.
• Splitting authority and working rhythm, as sentences you can paste into the agreement.
• Each of you: strength, what to hand them, and a watch-out such as "never let them hold the cash alone; build a check".
• Who carries which years: some periods one of you carries, some both, and some where a third hand is needed.
• Good days to sign this month and next, and days not to.
• Day-one rules: two or three, written from what this pair lacks, such as "no planning axis: buy or borrow systems from month one".

Turning it into a real agreement

A good partnership agreement has four parts, and the result above fills every one.

1. Scope: who holds what; use the "who holds what" list as is.
2. Decisions: which need both of you, which one of you, and who has the final say on money.
3. When one of you steps back: the years one partner needs to settle, how the other carries, and when to find a third hand.
4. The exit: how to split if you part; write it while you are still friends.

Before signing

Pick a date from the list of good days. Not because the date changes the business, but because choosing it together is your first joint decision, and a rehearsal of the rules you just wrote.

Create a founders team and read the charter before you see the lawyer.