If you’ve started or bought a business here in San Diego with other partners, then you know the value of surrounding yourself with the right people. In his blog, “Drew’s Marketing Minute,” business marketing expert Drew McLellan details five ideas for how you can create a committed team and create an environment that makes your business venture more rewarding. These include letting team members have a voice, loving your team and your work, having a clear and important team goal, celebrating all successes, and thanking your team in large and small ways.
Putting his practices into play can also have the added benefit of promoting a greater sense of loyalty and a stronger relationship among your business’s co-owners. Business partners aren’t always on the same page, and disagreements are to be expected whenever you go into business with someone else. Even so, your actions and that of your partners must always be tied to an underlying goal founded on your business’s shared best interests.
The Business Comes First: Co-Owners Must Act Responsibly to the Business and Each Other
California law says that as a business owner, you must put the best interest of the business above your own personal interests. This means that, by law, you must act responsibly when it comes to the business. You can’t do something to profit or benefit yourself at the expense of the business, or the other co-owners or shareholders. (There is an exception when you tell the co-owners or shareholders what you want to do, and they completely understand how it affects them, and they still agree to it.) Here are a few examples of the legal “do’s and don’ts” created by your legal responsibility to put the business first:
● Do: Give the business “first crack” at all opportunities to make money when those opportunities are related to the business in any way.
● Don’t: Keep secrets from your business co-owners and shareholders when those secrets have any effect on the business, or on the co-owners.
● Do: Be loyal to your co-owners.
● Don’t: Betray the business trust of your co-owners, especially in any way that would embarrass them or cost them money, unless they are doing something that is illegal or obviously harmful to others.
Perhaps most important of all is your responsibility to be careful – to make decisions responsibly and to always try to work for the benefit of the business. This doesn’t mean that every decision will yield perfect results – that would be impossible. What’s important is to be as careful as possible when you make any decision that affects the business.
When in Doubt, Ask Your Lawyer at San Diego Law Firm
You can improve the likelihood that everyone in your business will put the business first by following the suggestions mentioned above on creating a strong team, since these methods tend to reinforce everyone’s commitment to the business and its goals.
A clear, simple partnership agreement, or LLC documents, (either of which San Diego Law Firm can prepare for you), can also be used to spell out each co-owner’s responsibilities in placing the business first. If things fall apart, our skilled business litigation attorneys can help you handle and, possibly quickly stop, a business dispute. And, if you ever find yourself caught in a difficult situation between your own personal affairs and your business, don’t mishandle it. We can advise you on how to handle potential conflicts to protect both yourself and your business. Contact San Diego Law Firm at (619) 794-0243.
