Lisa: Basically a partnership of the type I think you're talking about can be very straightforward. The first trick is to value the company. The reason this is a "trick" is that it is likely that your prospective partner will be investing more money than the business is actually worth right now (using your financial statements), so you need to keep focused on potential.

You could get help from a local CPA to establish a value on your business. Once you have that value then you can negotiate the percentage of the business (based on the value just established) that you will allow the investor to have in exchange for their money or in-kind capital contributions. The deal can only work if the amount of money is enough and seen by you as a valid deal based on the percentage of the business to be traded for the percentage of the business.

There are also many options on how to structure this deal, so many in fact that I would be remiss to even discuss them. I would say though that you need to keep in mind a method to buy the investor back of your business if required.

Hope this helps.


Kent Capener
Capener Consulting, LLC
http://www.capenerconsulting.com