I have a 50 - 50 businss partnership with a collegue. I do only the tech stuff, she only sells. She also has another business of which I have absolutley no interest. She has approached me asking to do a free website for the "no interest" business. Initially this site was a simple 2 or 3 pager, which I agreed too. It has now grown to a full blown corporate image with logo design, 1/2 day photo shoot, 12 page website with credit card facility, etc.
I feel as though I have been taken advantage of. I don't want to jepodize my relationship with her which is pretty good usually, but feel something needs to be said. So I'm asking for your opinions on whether and what if anything I should do or say....
Never let anyone take of advantage of you in a business situation. It will only lead to trouble -- more trouble than you will get by confronting the other party.
I know its easy for me to just say "confront her!". But it is really, really important you you dont get sold short. A favor for a friend is one thing, but you are describing a Web Project that is potentially worth thousands of dollars!
We often feel the need to allow this sort of thing to avoid potential conflict. Your friend probably has no idea how you feel; infact, she probably has not even realised the unfairness of the situation.
Just tell her that there are alot of costs involved in E-Commerce Web Development and you simply cant fork out cash for such a project, which is a true statement in itself. She will understand.
Regards,
Andrew Buntine
P.S This should probably be in the Business Matters forum. Rhs, Jick?
I agree with buntine, except for one thing; there is nothing stoping you from asking for money for your services to do the website, and this would create a win-win situation. heres why:
If you tell her to get someone else;
1) you lose out on claiming extra cash
2) she loses too because the person doing it has to spend time trying to work out what you have done and she would have to pay for that where for you, she don't have to pay for any time wasted.
3) the person to take over from you might even scrap what you have done in favor for how they want to achive the desired outcome. ( which would waste more time and money)
there could be other points as well, but I am just trying to give you some ideas to work with.
If that is not what you want to do, buntine's suggestion would be my other course of action.
Oh, I was not implying he rule out that option. Its probably the best thing epoc could do. So, epoc, I recommend you take smercer's advice and ask for some type of payment -- unless she decides that the original agreement of a "simple 2 or 3 pager" will suffice.
Thanks for the advice guys. I am not sure I explained my situation well enough. She owns 1/2 the website design company wth me owning the other 1/2. This is not a friend doing a friend a favour. This is a business partner taking advantage of her owning 1/2 of the web design business to profit her other (of no interest to me) business.
I think you are corerect in that I need to tell her my concerns. Not necessarly for my financial gain, but for the future of our business relationship, as I am obviously upset she is taking advantage of me. Problem is this action may cause problems anyways as she is somewhat "fragile" when it comes to confrontation.
Originally posted by epoc Thanks for the advice guys. I am not sure I explained my situation well enough. She owns 1/2 the website design company wth me owning the other 1/2. This is not a friend doing a friend a favour. This is a business partner taking advantage of her owning 1/2 of the web design business to profit her other (of no interest to me) business.
I think we interpreted you correctly, and my recommendation also still stands.
Originally posted by epoc
I think you are corerect in that I need to tell her my concerns. Not necessarly for my financial gain, but for the future of our business relationship, as I am obviously upset she is taking advantage of me. Problem is this action may cause problems anyways as she is somewhat "fragile" when it comes to confrontation.
sounds like you are going to need professional help if you are to avoid an argument. May I recommend a counsellor? if this is not agreeable to you, try writing down what you want to say before telling her. In this way you know you are not going say something which could be interpreted the wrong way. I think there is nothing wrong with telling her the points I have given earlier if you don't mind continuing your work with her website.
If you decide to write down what you are going to say: don't come straight out with "I feel that I am being taken advantaged of" as that could end up with problems. first start by giving her a scenario that would put her in your shoes. say something like: "Have you ever done work for someone and they don't pay?" or "Do you know what it's like to do allot of work for someone for free?". this is to get her to get feelings similar to what you feel now. let her talk about her experiences and then say that is how you are starting to feel. Doing this would make her have empathic feelings towards you. this is when you can discuss your alternatives you have thought up or let her know you would like to receive payments for work done.
Another thing I thought you might like to consider is becoming a business partner (or employee) in the other company she runs, as designing a website is half the job, maintaining it is the other and that is an ongoing job as you would know. The only problem I can see with this is that you have no interest in the company she is involved in and would probably end with you not being keen on doing the work etc and could end the business relationship with an argument.
Go up to her and first come to a mutual understanding and agreement that friendship (No matter how much of friends you are) and business should be viewed seperately.
You are here to do business. If she needs your services, she pays. If she is making profit and has a healthy bank account, which it seems like she does, then she shouldn't have any problem with it.
She will prob want a discount which is understandible.
Friendship <> Business
Business = Services
Services = Pay up
You have to remember that she owns half of the Business. But considering you are not a skateholder in the other business, she needs to pay like any other customer.
Thanks you all for your advice. I will most certainly be confronting her albeit in a VERY passive manner. I will not use a councillor at this stage. I will write out what I want to say to prevent my blurting out something I will regret. I will also approach it with a positive attitude that we will come to a mutual solution and if this all fails, then a mediator it is!!
Ok, solution reached. Basically, it worked out after initially starting out bad. When I 1st appoached her it was a little heated. She couldn't understand why she should pay when she owns 1/2 the business. Then it became a "thought I was doing it for her as a friend" issue. In the end,I told her to take some time thinking about it and if she came back again saying she shouldn't pay, then I'd accept, but be far from happy about her decision. Well after a few days, she came back saying she would pay an amount. It's not what the site is worth, but at least she has acknowledged my efforts. And best of all, our relationship (as far as I can tell) didn't suffer!!
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