Contrary to the popular idea of entrepreneurs as lone wolves, following their own unique vision of what a business can be, many entrepreneurs actually work with a variety of partners or a management team to start up and grow their businesses. In many cases, the entrepreneur takes the time to carefully spell out the relationships between partners -- who does what, who owns what, and what happens if the partnership breaks up. In some cases, however, these relationships are never formally spelled out. This is a recipe for entrepreneurial disaster, not entrepreneurial bliss.

Charles Tetrick -- president and CEO of Walz Tetrick Advertising, an advertising agency with offices in Mission, Kansas and Orlando, Florida -- started his firm in 1990, not long after he graduated from the University of Kansas. Although his firm was steadily building a client base, when he met John Walz -- owner of a well-established advertising agency in the Kansas City area, who just happened to want to spend more time on the golf course and less time in the office -- he jumped at the opportunity to partner up and boost his client base overnight. Says Charles, "In 1993, we put our two firms together and changed the name to Walz Tetrick Advertising. But eighteen months later, John had a heart attack and died--with no will. He was 59, and I never expected him to die. I was only 26 at the time, and it hit me like a truck. It was a big shock to the business as well."

Aside from losing an important partner, Charles had never worked with or even met many of the long-time clients that John Walz brought with him to the partnership. Not only that, but there was no written agreement spelling out the terms of the partnership's dissolution when that day eventually arrived. As Charles would soon learn, this put his business very much at risk.

According to Charles, "When he died, there was a lot of ambiguity about the company's ownership. He had by far the majority of the equity -- the split was like 95/5 or 90/10 or something like that. I had a really small stake in the big picture. Of course, after John died, his estate was very curious about the value of the firm." Soon, Charles found himself drowning. Not only did he have a business to run, but he had to quickly build relationships with John's clients, deal with John's family, and negotiate a deal to buy Walz Tetrick Advertising from John's estate. And there was no guarantee (nor written agreement) that the estate would agree to sell out to Charles. The estate could have decided to put its own management team in place -- loaded with family members or outside parties -- or they might have decided to sell the firm to another much larger advertising firm, or they might have simply decided to shut it down.

Fortunately, the estate did ultimately decide to sell out to Charles, and the business was his. Charles says that he learned a lesson or two along the way, including the importance of communication and culture -- and hiring people who fit the culture. But I'll venture to guess that the biggest lesson Charles learned was always to get his business agreements in writing.