Starting a Partnership
There are many things that you must be aware of when starting a business partnership with someone else. Starting at the very beginning with your business partner, the two of you need to decide exactly what type of business you want to start. This includes deciding the good or service, name, and general standards of the business. All of the people in the partnership should also be very familiar with the state requirements for starting a business. Once a name is picked out, you need to check the availability of that name. You should also check to see how close the name might be to other business names that already exist. You and your partner should look at the state and federal requirements for registering your business. Remember that if the name you have picked out for your business doesn’t contain the names of all of the people involved in the partnership you are required to file a “fictitious business name”. For example, if John and Jane Smith wanted to name their business Puppies Galore, they would need to file a fictitious business name because it didn’t contain their last name in the name of the business. Before you officially get everything started, you should make sure that all the details of your business partnership are written down on paper. A clear and concise contract should be written up between all of the people in the partnership before anything else is ever signed or contracted for the people involved. Have a clear contract will prevent anyone from having any type of “sticky” situations later in the future. After you have both agreed on and signed your partnership contract, you must register your partnership with the Secretary of State office. This is most often required for LLP’s or Limited Liability Partnerships. Registering your partnership with the state makes the whole partnership official.
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