Partnership questions looking for advice

Hi all,

Well things in my e-waste business are starting to explode so I have been kicking around the idea of taking on a partner....The problem I am having is that there is not enough time for everything....The loads have to be picked up and then all the processing, then hauling to the yard and then packaging and shipping the boards to the refiner....Things are just getting away from me.

So I have been thinking that I may need to take on a partner, someone that would be able to help with the pick ups and everything else in between.

My questions are: Should this be a 50/50 split? I ask because I am providing the vehicle, insurance, buildings and so on

If not 50/50 then what would be a fair split?

I am not wanting to give anyone the shaft by any stretch but I want to make sure that things are fair and even as well.

Any advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Maybe instead of partnership is hired someone pay by the load or hr.

Hiring someone sounds like a better plan and a lot less of a pain in the backyard.....Guess I will be posting some ads in hopes of finding someone. Thanks folks, appreciate the advice

I would go with an employee. YOU built the business, why split it 50/50 with someone? Maybe find a retired guy who is bored and wants something to do a few hours a day.

I would go the employee route as well. Get someone at minimum wage and see if it works out. If they are good, you can give them more responsibilities and better pay. If not, you can easily sever the tie.

I am one though for whatever reason, that enjoyed having a partner in most of my ventures.. If you decide that route you may think of a full blown partner that covers half the load as well. Full blown to the point of 51/49 anyway. You will want to keep that 1% so it really is still yours.

NO to partnership.
YES to hiring someone.
Remember though, it is a WHOLE new ball game when you take on anyone else, in any form.
Will they have the same work ethics as you and represent your company as you would when out in the public.
What exactly would they be doing for you. Those things are what you must look at and SPELL OUT very clearly right up front.
Also, check your state and Fed laws concerning payroll and such. Will this person require to be W2'd or will you just 1099 him/her?
A lot to think about, and I just scratched the surface.

Jake you raise some interesting points in your response. The work ethic thing is probably the biggest thing for me....My wife says that I have too good a work ethic because even when I am done for the day I am sitting in the house stewing over things that need to be done out in the shop lol.

I'm in a 50/50 partnership in the E-Waste business with my step father. We both handle our business in different ways. I'm more of the brains, and he's mainly the back bone. We also have a couple people that we pay by the hour to help us process our loads when we get busy. The minute my mind starts the think in terms of greed, he will come through and impress me every time. This is a one in a million situation though, we have worked together our whole life, and he's the one whom taught me how to have a good work ethic.

In my opinion, you need to hire some people for your processing. It's tough for me, because I have yet to meet anyone that can pull more production than myself when it comes to constructing or tearing things up, but I need to get away from the manual labor and hunt for computers most of the time.

I would hire someone. The other thing is possibly paying per part since they dont have the resources to outlet it like you do if you find someone you tell them for each hard drive you pull out you get X amount for each XX you pull out you get X amount. You can drop off the computers to them and then pick up the stuff when they are done then they are paid per piece you wont have to worry about wasted hours as long as you trust the person is not going to steal your scrap metalscrap metalscrap metalscrap metal. Buy low Sell High. That is some motivation if you show them all the pieces you want on a few machines then send them with them and just collect they have the potential to make some decent money and you can make some money just for facilitating the operation. Just a thought.

You might find a hard working teen, im almost 16 and if i didnt have access toa truck i would want to do the job.....

Im facing the same problem with my scrapping metal, I bring my son in because he cant get a job because he has 3 kids and his wife works a full time job. He is more or less a stay home dad.Being he is my son, I give him half and then in return he gives me 1/3rd of what he gets back to me for gas. If ya think about it, a family member who is out of work and aint got the knowledge of what he can do when he has time can be a big help, and also, just gaining the knowledge of the scrapping business is a gift on its own. Just a thought I had....

I am sort of in a partnership I guess. I was doing it on my own, 98% just junk vehicles. I'm a hard worker and a smart thinker, but hauling and scrapping cars can be a lot of work for one person. If you can keep yourself busy enough your still limited to basically just one car a day. A friend of mine had been doing cars and cores with another guy but due to the other guy it wasn't working out too well (I know the other guy as well, not surprised it wasn't working out given the circumstances). At any rate, I have had other business ventures myself and have seen a zillion partnerships fall apart. Only seen one or two succeed. In fact my saying about partnerships is that they start with friends and end with enemies, lawsuits and broken friendships.

My "partner" and I talked about this a LOT before getting into it. Its not exactly a partnership but it kind of is. He thinks like me and is smart and quick like I can be, and in our particular line of work knowing the right people can mean a LOT. Due to some circumstances he does not have a driver license so is not able to actually do all this on his own, but he has gotten us a TON of work and kept us busy on days I woulda been sitting in the house. And its helpful having one another to motivate ourselves, if things get slow instead of me sitting here pouting and wondering what I can do, now we put our two good heads together and brainstorm more things to do. We are always keeping our heads high, looking for more resources and business ventures. We went from each of us having a couple hundred bucks to now we walk around with thousands in our wallets. We don't say no to anything that could make us money but we don't waste time making a few bucks here and there unless there's nothing better to do. We go for big loads and or big bucks. And we've been doing great at it! We have moved into not just scrapping vehicles but also buying running cars to resell. We have done great with that as well, almost always double our money on them. I'm the kind of guy that I'm too honest to be a career car salesman LOL. My partner however is a real slick talker when needed LOL it comes in pretty great a lot. I woulda been happy just buying and scrapping a few cars a week, but now we scrap a 3-6 cars a week, one or two large objects (grain truck or combine or what-not) and buy and resell a couple cars a week. Things get crazy sometimes but we chug ahead. We set back all of our core and non ferrous stuff and on Fridays we cash that in. We don't usually book any pickups for Fridays but usually wind up chasing leads and sometimes picking something up anyway. We've now got the truck setup to be full mobile for work and stripping cars and what-not, it has on board air to run impact wrench, air up tires, etc. and a big power inverter for sawzall, and other power tools. With this we have saved a lot of time and stress and hard back labor loading stuff or tearing things apart by hand. We don't have to bring cars back to the garage to strip if its out of the way. We can jack it up and chop the cat off right there on the trailer, remove lug nuts in a moment with the impact and knock the wheels off when they pluck cars off the trailer. Having two people makes an enormous difference when loading cars, chaining them down, etc. also.

Sometimes it seems like I do more of the actual work or that I spend more time crunching numbers, but at the same time I have to remember that if not for him I probably wouldn't be doing anything at all sometimes. Sometimes I think I'm nuts for sharing the profit, but at the same time some days there wouldn't be any profit at all if not for him. Same goes for him, he can't do any of it without me as he has no truck/trailer/license. He could buy a truck and trailer but still not drive it. Many times I wish he could drive so we could split paths and get more done sometimes, but we survive. We have big hopes, big dreams and big motivation to reach them. Two are stronger than one. I guess if you think of it as a marriage and keep that mentality that it takes two to make it work, and its better than being alone, that probably helps. He has a property with garage we are fixing up to use soon when our operations expand a little. I provide the truck and trailer. I am responsible for repairs on truck and trailer, but he covers half the fuel and maintenance. We figured that's the best way to keep it fair if we ever decide to split paths there is no joint owned property to fight over but we split the operating expenses. On his property he covers the expense of whatever we put into it, but we both provide labor to make the improvements on it (gravel and fencing).

It is something you need to consider deeply and I'm not by any means suggesting anyone get into it. I'm not even 110% positive it will work forever for us. But we've got it setup where if it doesn't, neither has anything to lose by trying. With that under control, we have no option but to succeed. Hopefully! LOL

I still vote that you hire someone, as stated, a retired guy would be best I think, most responsible and not going to be likely to be greedy and steal business, almost sure to be very polite to customers, and they are almost always very reliable and a lot less drama and BS than a kid. I'm saying this and i'll be 24 in May. But if I were gonna hire someone I didn't know, it wouldn't be a kid. If it was someone I knew and knew they were as hard of a worker as I am then that would be different, but if hiring a stranger it wouldn't be a kid. Waaaay too many worthless punks out there and too much trouble to sort through em all.

scrap metalscrap metalscrap metalscrap metal blue your young lol
Blue if i lived closer to you i think we could make some major major money on stuff together.
Also blue cordless impacts,sawzalls,and a big air tank are your friends lol.

Cs you just have to try and find someone that you can just and it honest and dependable.

Focker, on board air, 25' hose reel mounted in bed, another 25' line to hook into that, and a third one just in case :P and if that don't reach it, the 11 gallon portable tank WILL! LOL
Cordless stuff is handy but already having the inverter and it runs every tool i already own, its dumb to go spend $1k in cordless tools to replace the inverter and extension cord. Plus you'll be waiting for batteries to charge and spending money out the wazoo replacing batteries every couple years. I like cordless stuff and it has its place in my garage but its not the perfect solution for me.