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Partnering Your Way to Unlimited Success 207

the journey with you, share the workload, and talk shop with you
can make the venture less stressful and more rewarding.

Three Steps to Partnering Your Way to Success

Once you recognize how powerful partnerships can be, you can
accomplish anything you set your mind to by following three not-
so-simple steps:

1. Figure out what you want to do. That sounds easy enough, but
when you can accomplish anything, you have a lot of options
to narrow down.

2. Determine what you need in order to accomplish your goal:
money, equipment, personnel, knowledge, skills, talents, ser-
vices, supplies. Before you start shopping, you need a com-
prehensive grocery list.

3. Acquire everything you need, including the partners who have
what you need and need what you have.

Drawing Up a Partnership Agreement

A partnership isn't really considered a separate business entity,
such as an LLC (limited liability corporation) or S-corporation. The
profits and losses flow through the individual partners rather than
through the business. The partnership does not pay separate income
tax, but still you must file a return for the partnership.

You can have an informal partnership, but I strongly recommend
that whenever you form a partnership, you have your attorney
draw up a detailed partnership agreement. Without an agreement
in writing, any conflict will be decided based not on what you and
your partner want but rather on the guidelines in the UPA (Uniform
Partnership Act) and RUPA (Revised Uniform Partnership Act). Ask
your attorney whether your state has adopted either of these acts,
because it could affect the way the partnership is handled upon
dissolution.