When to promote a site?

Posted by Charlie on May 27, 2008 at 3:01pm in Legal Advice

Hello,
I have a partnership agreement with someone on a site I have now built. We agreed that we would form an LLC when the site makes $1000.
Our partnership is a semi-formal agreement made and detailed through email and logged chat conversations. We seem to have covered all the points needed to make a contract valid (from what I can tell in your post regarding that), so that is not a big concern. (or maybe it should be)

But my main question is that, without an LLC or trademarks on my logo, is it advisable to go ahead and promote and make something successful and get those things done as we go?

By the way, the name of the business is the full name of the domain, so I'm not terribly concerned someone else would own that name as a company already.

I appreciate your time.
Regards,
Charlie

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Permalink Reply by OnlineDegrees on May 27, 2008 at 6:35pm: Emails and logged chats do not constitute the terms of an agreement. Instead, in the absence of a formal partnership agreement, the law views your arrangement as a “general partnership” which is governed by the default contract law of your specific state (and not by the discussions in your emails and chats). In a general partnership with two partners, what this typically means is that each of the partners split the profits and liabilities and otherwise split things down the middle. From a liability standpoint, operating as a general partnership offers no protection to the partners. Instead, it completely exposes all of the partners’ assets to potential lawsuits.

Instead, I’d advise forming a liability-protected vehicle right away. LLCs are immensely popular and are my #1 recommendation for liability protection. After forming your LLC, you should open a bank account and sign contracts in the name of the LLC, not in your individual capacity.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Charlie on May 27, 2008 at 7:18pm: I sincerely appreciate the valuable advice. I will get an LLC formed right away. It seems that with almost anything, it is only a few small steps difference between the right way and the wrong way.

Great site you have here.
Regards,
Charlie; ▶ Reply to This