BRINGING IN A BUSINESS PARTNER.
Bringing a business partner into your construction company is one of the biggest financial decisions you'll make. Get the structure right up front and it speeds the business up. Get it wrong and it creates disputes that cost more than the partnership was ever worth. Three things have to be settled in writing before anybody comes on board: the valuation methodology, the equity split and what earns it, and the buy-sell agreement.
Almost every partnership fight we have watched traces back to something nobody wrote down while everyone still liked each other. What the company is worth. Who gets paid what and when. What happens if one of you wants out. None of those are hard conversations at the start and all three are brutal later. The attorney fee for a buy-sell agreement is small money against the cost of two owners arguing over a valuation that was never defined. Do the paperwork while the deal is still friendly.
WHAT IT MEANS.
A partner buy-in is the transfer of an ownership stake in your construction company in exchange for cash, sweat equity, or both, priced off an agreed business valuation.
WHERE PARTNERSHIPS GO WRONG.
You're bringing someone in without a clear valuation
If there's no agreed valuation methodology before a partner comes on board, every future argument about distributions, buyouts, or exits gets fought from an undefined starting point. The valuation conversation is uncomfortable to have. Having it up front costs a fraction of having it in a dispute.
The equity split doesn't reflect the real contribution
A 50/50 split feels fair when two people start something together. It feels a lot less fair three years later when one partner is running field operations full time and the other is managing one project. An equity structure that accounts for role, capital contribution, and ongoing contribution keeps that imbalance from building.
There's no buy-sell agreement
What happens when a partner wants out? What happens if a partner dies or is no longer able to work? What happens when two partners can't agree on a major business decision? Without a buy-sell agreement and a defined valuation trigger, every one of those turns into an expensive dispute, which is why the buy-sell is worth its attorney cost many times over.
WHAT GETS SETTLED BEFORE THEY SIGN.
We build the financial package a business valuation runs off before a new partner buys in: current financial statements, WIP, AR aging, backlog, and the equipment schedule. The incoming partner attorney or a business valuator needs clean, current financials to set the valuation. Those documents already exist because they come out of the monthly close.
Before the partnership is formalized, settle how distributions work: what percentage of profit stays in the business, when distributions get paid, and how they're split. That policy heads off the informal distribution habits that turn into partner disputes the first year the business throws real profit. Writing it down takes an afternoon.
Every partner should be looking at the same financial picture: monthly P&L, WIP, cash position, and overhead rate. We deliver that to Executive clients every month. When all the partners read the same accurate numbers, financial arguments happen less often and settle faster when they do.
FLAT MONTHLY FEE. NO SURPRISES.
Three tiers, priced by your trailing twelve month revenue. Which one you're in depends on how much of the work you want off your desk. No hourly billing, no payroll, and no add-ons.
| Last 12 months revenue | Monthly fee |
|---|---|
| Up to $1M | $1,900 to $2,900 |
| $1M to $3.5M | $2,600 to $3,900 |
| $3.5M to $6.5M | $3,800 to $5,700 |
| $6.5M to $9.5M | $5,100 to $7,100 |
| $9.5M to $12.5M | $6,100 to $8,500 |
| $12.5M to $15.5M | $7,400 to $11,000 |
| $15.5M to $18.5M | $9,400 to $13,500 |
| $18.5M+ | Quoted individually |
Range reflects the three tiers below. Which one you're in depends on how much of the work you want off your desk. No payroll. No hidden line items.
You stop guessing.
You get the CFO work. Job costing built against the way you estimate, a 13 week cash forecast, monthly WIP, and a meeting every month that ends in decisions rather than a report.
Your bookkeeper keeps doing the books.
You stop touching the books.
Everything in Core, and we run the bookkeeping and the controllership as well. Nobody in your office is answering coding questions or chasing a reconciliation at month end.
We do the books. No payroll.
Every job shows its margin while it's still running.
Everything in Executive, plus the job costing and WIP platform set up, loaded with your cost codes, and managed for you every month. You never have to learn it.
We do the job costing.
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