Achieve Digital Signature Licitness for Business Partnership Agreement in United States

How to eSign a document: digital signature licitness for Business partnership agreement in United States

hello and thanks for visiting graphene business law if the start of the New Year 2023 has you thinking about starting your own business and this business involves Partners whether they're your friends colleagues family members whatever the case may be and you're curious about how to best protect the interests of each partner in the form of a partnership agreement and what goes into a partnership agreement and why they're so important well then you should keep watching because we'll be addressing all of those questions and ideas in this video my name is Pamela matani I'm the principal lawyer and founder here at graphene business law a law firm that is able to provide Legal Services all across Ontario and do so virtually and a law firm that Prides itself on the quality of business law work that we do and of course that can involve drafting a myriad of documents for your business including of course something like partnership agreements that this video is focused on so without further Ado what is a partnership agreement what does that even mean when we're talking about partnership agreements this is an official document usually we see them in place at the beginning of a business at the beginning of a new business life okay and we're not talking about Partnerships in the colloquial sense you know you might have heard the term oh we're Partners we're doing this together whatever the case may be we're talking about concrete business partners of this new Venture of yours that are going to have something at stake they're going to be contributing something and that have real expectations placed upon them so this is not necessarily A partnership for the occasional help here and there there are other documents that can help you capture those relationships this is more for systemic involvement into a business who is expected to show up every day and do what each day and what have they put into the business and how what they've put into the business be protected and every single day okay now of course with the beginning of the new year there's always you know like we have New Year's resolutions with health and finances and whatever the case may be it's not surprising that the beginning of a new year brings with it the beginning of so many new businesses as well and a lot of them do take the form of Partnerships there are two kinds of Partnerships out there it's worth noting there's general liability Partnerships and limited liability Partnerships for the purpose of this video just because it's so much more common and so much more relevant to the everyday business person starting a business with Partners we're focusing here on General Partnerships okay and um this video of course is meant to Enlighten you so that when you do seek that professional legal advice you are able to hit the ground running in your relationship with that lawyer and you have so much more knowledge coming into the meeting and therefore are expecting so many less surprises fewer surprises because you're coming from that place of knowledge and self-education through including you know videos such as this one um put out by graphene graphene business law it goes without saying that the agreement is going to capture details such as the time and date the partnership was formed you know what business it pertains to the location of the business and those things right that I have to mention it just in case somebody's wondering if I didn't mention if it doesn't go with the agreement of course it does however I'd like to talk more about the meteor sections of a partnership today of a partnership agreement and as you can expect those meteor sections are going to have to do almost um I shouldn't say almost exclusively but I'll say primarily with what money who's putting how much what are the loans what's the cash injection what are the assets what's going on with the dollar signs of the business okay I'm just scrolling down here of course I have notes to share um just I'll be talking about some bigger picture Clauses and stipulations that we can find in Partnership agreements and that you can expect to discuss with your lawyer when you go reach out to that professional to the legal professional and of course I believe I mentioned at the beginning of the video here at graphene business law we are certainly able to help you put together a partnership agreement that's beneficial to you and your business now there are sections about loans of the partnership okay so who is making what kind of loans how is that money being protected right this needs to be written down and taken good care of and um and amounts of of the loans and debts loans how on what terms are they repayable to to whoever made the loan to the business whatever the case is those dollar signs coming in and out through the form of credit need to be recorded okay um I'm just looking down here um of course you know when it comes to capital accounts how's that money being preserved by each partner something that we commonly see is that separate capital accounts shall be maintained for each partner for example when there's additional Capital contributions to the business how is it expected that Partners continue to inject cash into the business and if it is are those amounts capped at a certain dollar sign you know five thousand ten thousand five hundred dollars at what frequency what's going on with extra money that you expect to see in the business which of course begs the question of who put how much in to begin with right this is something that would be recorded and again what um a potential segue off of that or bleed off into another important section is um who holds what power within the business so just because everybody put 25 let's say there's four partners and they each put in 100 000 startup they each put in 25 000. this is not necessitate that these Partners will each be 25 Partners in the business right so that's another item to think about prior to going to a lawyer and discuss with your partner so that you are well prepared how much um what what voting what shares what power does each partner have in the business regardless of how much Capital each partner has infused into the business um and profits losses and distributions is another section we almost always see in Partnership agreements and of course here we're talking about how will these what profits losses and uh you know how will they be distributed how will they be shared amongst the partners which again has to do in part with a percentage of uh shares and voting ability in the business who is getting what does not necessarily need to equate into who put how much into the business these are choices you have in drafting your partnership agreement sometimes we see partners that are a little more on the silent side on the you know helping outside so if you're making a business with your parents they might be putting in a certain amount of capital like 50 for example the capital starting your business they might not want 50 power or voting power or ability to make decisions over your business they might want a much smaller share of that as uh you know nod to the fact that they still want some say in the business but that it is you know you as their child it's your thing and they're supporting you as a partner but financially so okay important sections that have to do so so far we've talked about the money sections the dollar signs right important other important sections and partnership agreements and we've already kind of touched on it with the voting shares and the the say who has what say other important sections that pertain to that would include as well who is able to leave the business and come into the business and in what terms right just because you have four Partners to begin with OR to start your business doesn't mean that that might not for whatever reason dwindle down to two people at you know in one in a year it also could go the other way four Partners could become 10 members of this if your business blows up and you need so much more Capital you keep bringing new partners if that's a choice you make or you bring in new partners for strategic reasons maybe some Partners you know they're good with one is good with distribution one's good with manufacturing one is good with Market whatever the kids may be right one is good with all the tech stuff that we you know that seems to run the world these days online so with helping you acquire customers online and Concepts like that okay I'm just scrolling here I've already mentioned time and effort so at the beginning of this video who is expected to do what and then we see more so um I mentioned at the beginning sections like time and date and location obviously goes without saying another one of those um sections that's always there is a partner dies what do we do with our interests um but perhaps less uh tragically so if a partner has acted inappropriately how do we get rid of that partner so these are things to think about I'll um I'll stop the video um or not the video I'll stop my notes there um because again the point of this is not um for you to go home and feel all this pressure of I got all these great ideas from watching this graphing video on what goes into a partnership agreement I'm going to take it upon myself to draft this document and that's Risky Business that is not what we're talking about here okay everything you've heard here you should consult a legal professional but like I said this video will make you much better prepared for that consultation but I'll pause here just to reflect on all those sections and all those ideas we've discussed okay big picture with the partnership agreement we're talking about dollar signs and Power there are special circumstances right so one business might have might be asset heavy in a way outside of business excuse me might have intellectual property that is so substantial to to its formation that we're going to want to record you know take record of this every time when it comes to which partner brought what to the business and what the rights are around you know those assets right those things of value which I piece certainly is my big picture big picture we're talking about how much and who who can do what okay so these are things that you need to be thinking about when you're going to business first and foremost of course going to business with somebody that you trust not only from honesty and integrity perspective but somebody who skill set and value you trust somebody that will can really Propel you forward it can be very tricky to to you know confuse ourselves in finding value owing to emotions attached with a certain person um you know oh my neighbor I just hot like they're the best they're going to be the best business partner my mom my husband my dog you know I would slow it down a little bit there and think concretely like you're not going into business for reasons you can't cash out feelings okay long story short you're going into business to do something successful now what you do with that success whether it's to help you know other people out and put the money all toward charity or whether it's you know to buy yourself the biggest house you can with the biggest wheels in the front those are your priorities that is your business you know in in every sense of the word literally and figuratively but when it comes to the success of that business you should look to go into business with somebody who you trust like I mentioned from an Integrity perspective and from a skill set perspective and then the follow-up is well what do I trust them to do right so once people have bought money to the table or they've discussed ways you know creative funding and loans that they can help take advantage of for the purpose of growing this business well then what does everybody do and when it comes to big decisions how do we decide these decisions with these people that are now involved through money and through voting power in the business okay that's the big picture I want you to take away that's going to be the crucial first step of a conversation to anybody that you are considering partnering with or anybody that's topped you on the shoulder maybe you already have a business structure in place that's working really well and you've been doing this on your own for a while but somebody's taught you hey I'd love to be your partner because of your special sauce you know how do we go about making this into a partnership and maybe you see something beneficial that you can get in return from that uh from that relationship so those are things to think about when it comes to putting these things into action please seek legal advice make it you know legally adherent make it legally beneficial and make it you know of value it's um you know there's a lot of things around the house that I don't try to DIY and by the same I wouldn't advise a lot of people to try and DIY legal contracts especially those that involve other people because that can get sticky very quickly so do consult legal Professionals of course graphing business law we're here to help with all of that partnership Agreements are we are so so familiar with drafting um the good partnership agreements and we're here and happy to help you with that our website is graphenebusinesslaw.ca and of course you can email us anytime info graphenebusinesslaw.ca so I'll end the video there thank you for watching if there's any questions or any follow-ups you can email us reach out to us at any time and of course good luck with your new business with your new partnership and all the hopes of the new year thank you for watching