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Partnerships: If I have 51 percent and my partner has 49 percent of our company, what real decision making authority would I have?
KM
KM
Kerby Meyers, Strategic thinker and communicator, author answered:

In my experience, partnerships tend to be tenuous, unless expectations and responsibilities are clearly outlined. Your question is rooted solely in the current ownership structure, which is one sliver of managing a business.
There are so many day-to-day aspects that it’s unrealistic for one person to be the decision-maker over everything. Think about the daily work that needs to be done. The production of the products or the delivery of the services. The sourcing of materials or resources. Marketing and sales. Employee or contractor matters. The accounting. The development of the brand and culture. I trust you each have strengths (and yes, weaknesses) that translate into one handling certain elements of the business better than others.
For example, I know of a service company where one of the co-founders hates dealing with employees, so the other one handles all employee relations for their 30 or so workers. That’s not a reflection of their ownership stakes, but of who's the best person for that responsibility.
Furthermore, when you take on angel investors, your ownership stakes will likely be decreased in order to bring in that money. How will that effect your roles? Another critical discussion to have.
If you haven’t hashed out these nuts and bolts of running the business and ensuring that both of you feel that the contributions are valuable on both sides of the equation, it’s likely a good time to have that conversation.
Good luck and let me know if you need more assistance.

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