Post:
I am looking for unbiased input on a business partner situation. I will keep this tight and factual and am genuinely open to being wrong.
Context
Small but growing construction and drainage service business. Two owners. I own 51 percent. My partner owns 49 percent. We have been operating together for several years.
Contributions
I provided startup capital, equipment financing, strategy, and most systems and pricing. Recently I also built a tech and digital ecosystem that materially changes the company’s long term direction.
My partner provided sweat equity, field execution, and early employee introductions.
Equity was granted early without vesting or formal governance. That was a shared mistake.
The problem
The business developed margin and cashflow issues over time. These included weak job cost controls, unbilled overages, inconsistent change orders, and distributions taken under inaccurate margin assumptions. This resulted in roughly forty thousand dollars of financial drift tied to my partner.
Some failures occurred before strict systems were enforced. Enforcement came late.
Pattern
We have repeated a cycle multiple times. Reset conversation. Short improvement. Regression.
Observed issues include defensiveness around accountability, feedback interpreted as micromanagement, and inconsistent owner level execution. On my side, I historically over function to fix issues, then withdraw when burned out.
No assumption of personality change on either side.
Vision shift
The company is moving from a field crew model toward a systems driven and tech enabled business. My partner did not co create this shift and does not naturally operate well in rules heavy feedback loop environments.
Team risk
Some employees have longer personal history with my partner, creating some retention risk depending on how this is handled.
Decision options
One. Another tightly enforced sixty to ninety day trial.
Two. Staged buyout with milestones.
Three. Immediate equity buyout using a waiver of the roughly forty thousand dollars owed in exchange for equity, with an optional offer to stay on as a salaried employee under clear KPIs.
Four. Status quo, which I believe is not viable.
What I am optimizing for
Business survival
Margin integrity
Fairness
Minimizing long term regret
Protecting the team
Avoiding burnout
The question
At this stage, would you try one final enforced trial to prove this is a systems issue, or accept that the partnership itself is incompatible with the company’s direction and separate now?
What would you do and why
What risks am I misjudging
Thanks for any perspective