Strategy to get involved with business and business investment

[Blurock]

The other experience I have had with investors, is that they want a significant chunk of the business as part of their investment, with out being involved in the business. So over night you may get a new partner who owns 80 to 90% of your company, for the funds that he invests, after all he wants to make sure that his financial investment is safe and not squandered. This places you in a predicament, you are the slave with the responsibility of making it work, and lose the IP, and you will play second fiddle until you can buy the investor out, which becomes more and more difficult, as the value of the product/company increases with success, and your portion will never be big enough to buy out the investor.

This is exactly the problem that I have with the Business Partners model. Once the business grows, the 30% investment grows as well. I have seen small businesses that will always be a slave to BP and will continue to pay monthly royalties and fees for as long as they exist. The alternative is to find a loan/investor for the million(s) that is now required to buy out the initial stake of a few R100k.

Don't get me wrong, Business Partners is doing good work, but be very careful and consider all the options before you enter into an equity deal with them, or any other entity.