A few weeks ago Men\u2019s Warehouse founder, George Zimmer was fired from the company he founded. It turned out he wasn\u2019t the majority shareholder of the company.\u00a0 That led to his ouster.<\/p>\n
No matter what kind of company you found, there are a few key points to ensure this doesn\u2019t happen to you (unless you are just in it for a quick turnaround and flip, in which case that\u2019s your exit strategy and what you strive for).<\/p>\n
\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When raising money, remember, the probability of having to give up more than 50% to get the money is very high.\u00a0 That means you\u2019re giving up control.\u00a0 Often the founder is parachuted out with lots of cash.\u00a0 But if you want to build a company and maintain control, think carefully about the sources of your money. This is what is meant by \u201cexpensive\u201d money.<\/p>\n
\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When taking on partners or starting out with partners, make sure there is a strong contractual agreement in place that covers who is in control of what and to what degree.\u00a0 Anything can happen, and the weird stuff often does \u2013 if your partner dies or gets divorced, you may wind up with an heir who knows or cares nothing about the business.\u00a0 Then your problems really begin, especially if they don\u2019t want to be bought out (or you can\u2019t afford to buy them out).<\/p>\n
\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Vision\u00a0 = Control\u00a0 as stated very clearly in the article link below.\u00a0 If you want to see your vision flourish, make sure you maintain control of your company.<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/today\/post\/article\/20130625210053-25745675-the-lesson-from-george-zimmer-s-firing-keep-control?ref=email<\/a><\/p>\n \u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If your company has a Board of Directors, remember one of their main functions is to determine whether or not to fire you (and your management team).\u00a0 This is what happened at Men\u2019s Warehouse. This is also why so many large corporations have a Board of Directors that is composed of cronies.<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2013\/06\/26\/george-zimmer-letter_n_3505699.html<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n A few weeks ago Men\u2019s Warehouse founder, George Zimmer was fired from the company he founded. It turned out he wasn\u2019t the majority shareholder of the company.\u00a0 That led to his ouster. No matter what kind of company you found, there are a few key […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":266,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"post-templates\/post-middle-column.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8600,8577],"tags":[28734,8582,28736,8576,8581,28733,8572,28735,38568,8661],"class_list":["post-5883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inside-retail","category-small-business","tag-board-of-directors","tag-business-tips","tag-buy-out","tag-entrepreneurs","tag-global-business","tag-partners","tag-retail","tag-shareholder","tag-small-business","tag-strategic-partners"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1v7EM-1wT","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/hottopicsinsider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/hottopicsinsider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/hottopicsinsider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/hottopicsinsider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/266"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/hottopicsinsider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/hottopicsinsider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5883\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/hottopicsinsider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/hottopicsinsider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/hottopicsinsider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nShe is the author of\u00a0Lies Startups Tell Themselves to Avoid Marketing<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"