Building Sustainable Partnerships

If you are or were a partner in a business partnership, please fill out the questionnaire below. You will receive a free report based on the results of the survey and you will also be entitled to a 50% discount on any advice or assistance by Ambrose SBP (up to the total of £1,000) within six months of filling it out and may be selected for a free review of your case (if you desire).

Please do not feel constrained by the wording of the questions and feel free to add any other details that you think are important.

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1. Are you or have you been in a partnership with another person or persons?YesNo

partner(s)? proposed on

2. How many partners do you have (have you had)?Just oneMore than one but less than fiveMore than five

Tell us about the number of your partners

3. What is/was the nature of your business?

4. In what legal form was it set up?

• General partnership
• Limited partnership
• Limited liability company
• Limited liability partnership
• Other

Please tell us about the legal form of your partnership. Depending on your jurisdiction, the names may vary so if you do not find the exact match, select the closest or Other

5. In what country are you based?

Please tell us where your business is located (i.e. where your company is incorporated or, if it is not incorporated, where you reside and the country/state where you carry out your business operation)

6. What was the main reason why you decided to go for a partnership with a co-partner(s)?

Please tell us briefly why you chose to go into partnership with another person or persons instead of going solo. Did you consider going solo or other forms of doing business without full partnership?

7. Had you been in any partnership before that?

• Yes
• No

8. Was it you who proposed partnership to your partner(s) or were you invited to do so by the other partner(s)?

• You
• The other partner(s)
• A third party

Please tell us who proposed partnership to who. In other words, who was the initiator of the partnership?

9. If it was you, why did you propose partnership to this particular person(s)?

Please tell us what were the main reasons for offering partnership to this specific person. For example, it may be because he/she had some skills or experience that you did not have or because you were already colleagues in your previous work or because you just needed a co-partner and knew this person well enough to think he/she might be a good fit

10. If it was the other partner who proposed partnership to you, why did he/she choose you?

Tell us why you think your co-partner chose you as his/her partner. It might be one of the reasons mentioned in question 9 above or something different

11. What was the main difference between you and your partner(s)? Was it

• Psychological
• In terms of business strategy
• In terms of values
• In terms of attitude to risk
• In terms of commitment to the business
• In style/mode of operation
• In anything else

Please tell us what you think is the main difference between you and your co-partner(s) in aspects that are relevant for the business

12. How was the interest between the partners allocated (e.g., equal shares or not)? If the shares were unequal, what was this allocation based on?

If the interest/shares in the business are allocated unequally please tell us why. Was it based on any assessment of your respective contributions?

13. Has your partnership been successful as a business? Is it profitable?

• Yes
• No
• Too early to say

14. Did you ever renegotiate (or considered renegotiating) the interest allocation? If so, why?

That might happen if one of the partners believed that the initial allocation was unfair, e.g., if one or more partners did not deliver what was expected of them. If this is the case, we would appreciate your telling us the reason and how the issue was resolved (or why it was not resolved)

15. Did you have a detailed discussion of the long-terms strategy for the business with your prospective partner before forming the partnership

• Yes
• No
• Do not remember

Tell us what you remember about discussing the objectives and strategy for your business with your prospective partners prior to forming the partnership.

16. What was the most difficult thing to agree on in pre-partnership negotiations?

We are referring here to negotiations preceding the formation of the partnership. How did you manage to agree on this? Or did you fail to agree but still decided to go for a partnership?

17. What do you think you should have agreed on with your partner prior to forming the partnership, which you did not agree on?

Please also tell us why you did not agree. Did you overlook this matter in the first place or did you think that your partnership could be successful even without agreement on this matter?

18. Did you have any doubts or misgivings about going for a partnership with this person(s)? If so, why?

We are referring to the doubts you may have had but ultimately put aside. Have your misgivings been proven true?

19. Did you ever regret doing this partnership? If so why?

Was it unexpected or had you anticipated the problems that made you regret doing this?

20. Has your partnership broken down? If so, what was the main reason for that?

Please also tell us whether you have been able to resolve this issue and if so how.

21. What was the main challenge for you in the partnership?

The question relates not to the business as a whole but to your relations with your partner(s), which could have affected the business. Or it may be a major problem in your business that was aggravated by your relations with your partner(s). For this see question 22 below

22. If you had any major crisis in your business, did having a partner help you handle it or did it make it more difficult?

Did it change your perception of the usefulness of having a partner in the business or call into question your choice of the partner?

23. Overall, do you think that being in a partnership:

• Made running your business easier
• Made running your business more difficult
• Allowed you to mitigate risks of your business
• Increased the risks for your business
• Created a good synergy allowing you to achieve better results than you could have done on your own

Please provide your name and contact details, such as e-mail and phone

We shall use your e-mail to share the final report or to contact you with specific bespoke offers. This is not a subscription to any generic offers or other unsolicited mail. We shall not call you on your phone number without your express consent

Do you agree to the use of your name and/or that of your business in any videos or public communications?

• No
• Yes
• Depends on the context. Please ask me when an occasion arises

Unless you expressly authorize us to use your name and any other personal data provided about your business, we shall not do so, although we can use information provided to refer to your case on a no-name basis excluding any information allowing to identify you

If you would like to take advantage of our offer of 50% discount on any service within six months please indicate below what advice you need or ask us to contact you

As indicated above, we offer a 50% discount (up to £1,000) on any (non-legal) advice or assistance on issues related to your partnership provided by Ambrose SBP within six months after the date you fill out this questionnaire. This offer is subject to our confirmation that we are able to provide the assistance requested. If you are interested, please describe the nature of assistance you need. Alternatively, we can discuss this orally or by e-mail. Let us know if you would like to do that

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