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My boyfriend and i started an export company 2 years ago. I own 50% of the company. He holds a position as a President/CEO. We do not have a lot of assets but we have quite a few of liabilities owed from creditors. I am not too happy how he is handling the sales and the decision making, it is putting a lot of stress (i feel like i am going to get really sick due to these)on me as most of his decisions have resulted to a lot of failures, mostly on the terms of payments he agreed upon with the buyers, there is no fixed dates when it should be paid hence putting us on the state of being at their mercy seems like which puts us behind all of our obligations to our creditors. He keeps most of the important information such deals, sales and statuses to himself leaving me in the dark.

I have put in a lot of money in promoting the business since we started it for which I have failed to keep records of it. I own all the office equipments, computers, printers, telephone my car which we use to pick up merchandise back and forth.

I am planning in resigning as a co-owner VP, can I keep my ownership but free myself from all the current and future liabilities? The company has bright future but on the verge of failing due to his poor decision making.

I don't want to be involved in any lawsuits in the future.

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Nothing strains relationships more then money. Since you're partners what kind of agreement do you have between you? – Karlson Dec 20 '12 at 15:31
Mom is that you? :) Just kidding, but it's so similar! – mojsilo Dec 20 '12 at 17:18
Have you spoken open to him about your issues? You are pretty frustrated and own 50%. If he is wise he should listen to what you have to say. – Christian Dec 21 '12 at 5:52
StackExchange is used by many countries in the world, each with its own laws etc. Any advice you get is completely invalid until you state your country. – R4D4 Dec 21 '12 at 15:41

2 Answers

up vote 3 down vote

Up front, I have empathy for your situation. You seem to be in a "perfect storm" stress situation:

  1. relationship
  2. with partner in a startup
  3. working the same company
  4. company isn't doing good

Yikes. One of these is stressful enough.

Startups are never stress-free environments with clear, easy to follow decision paths. Accepting this fact and trying to stay the course / be objective (or not accepting & breaking all relations) is a decision only you can choose to make.

When the company is at the end of the runway, there are no easy decisions to be made. What you consider "manipulative and shady ideas" may be what is required to live another day (I offer no justification / rationalization, only an outside perspective.)

That said, you seem to be in a 50/50 business arrangement. 50% of zero is still zero, and hopefully your agreements / corporate structure protects against personal liability. Whether or not your shares are rescinded based on resignation should be spelled out in your corporate documents.

To protect your interest, one can attempt to engage in postmortems over decisions made. IF you can maintain an objective / non accusatory stance, you can enter into a dialogue over what other alternatives were possible and work towards a collaborative decision making process. You could start over discussing the corporate documents & the need to record things - like the documentation of investments & records.

Best of luck with whatever path your decision leads you to.

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up vote 0 down vote

You have way too many problems to begin to count and I would very very very very very very seriously suggest talking to a lawyer and an accountant. Because as far as I can see you are likely to have a battle not just over your business coming given the fact that

My boyfriend and i started an export company 2 years ago

So besides dividing the business if there is anything to divide there is also a matter of how long you two have been together and how this is considered under the law.

Secondly.

I have put in a lot of money in promoting the business since we started it for which I have failed to keep records of it.

Given this and the fact above it I would venture to guess that you have no written agreements when it comes to your business, so you have no predefined exit strategy. So whatever you do from now on a lawyer is a must so you don't make a mess of your liabilities.

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