4 partners setting up their first company - advices needed!

[Millicent]

Hello everyone,

 

We are in the process of founding my first company and we would appreciate your advice.

We are 4 partners, all at the first entrepreneurial experience, but we have been working together for few years in a company and we have already clients for our future company.

 

However we are not sure what's the best way to set up the business: 3 of us are going to be work on it full time, while one is going to have another full time job abroad and be available only few hours a week. However he is the most senior of us, with more connections and with a solid reputation in our business - his presence in the company is guarantying access to high-end clients and credibility from the beginning.

 

Our questions are:

- what is the best way to make our involvement/risks in the company balanced, considered the difference amount of time we are able to invest?

- we will be providing creative services to businesses: is it better to start as a VoF, a commercial stichting or straight away as a BV?

 

As stated we are at our first experience in terms of entrepreneurship, so any answers and advice is very welcome!

Dank je wel!

 

18 mei 2022 aangepast door Millicent
typos

[Hans van den Bergh]

Welcome to HL 

 

Did you already put some effort in a businessplan? Because that is the first step: to research several essential aspects with questions like:"What do we want to achieve?" "How can this be achieved?" "What do we need to achieve it?"

[Millicent]

Thank you very much for your answer Hans! Yes we are also working on the business plan parallelly, it's still WIP but we  are aiming to have it completed towards the end of next week.

[Hans van den Bergh]

10 uur geleden, Millicent zei:

Our questions are:

- what is the best way to make our involvement/risks in the company balanced, considered the difference amount of time we are able to invest?

- we will be providing creative services to businesses: is it better to start as a VoF, a commercial stichting or straight away as a BV?

 

Then questions like these should also be answered...

[Joost Rietveld]

11 uur geleden, Millicent zei:

while one is going to have another full time job abroad and be available only few hours a week. However he is the most senior of us, with more connections and with a solid reputation in our business - his presence in the company is guarantying access to high-end clients and credibility from the beginning

Hi Millicent

 

These kind of expectations always raise my eyebrows. You better be really, really, really sure that this person delivers on these expectations, otherwise you are left with a partner that does nothing, but stands to gain from your labour....and you won't be the first...

 

Furthermore: the business plan should indeed have a paragraph about the legal entity. From here we can hardly give advice on this, since we have no idea what your plans are. 

 

A VOF seems a logical place to start from, since incorporation requires little, but it also is the most unpractical form if one of the partners has a different input. A BV is more likely, not in the last place since apparently your partner already is an entrepreneur with multiple companies. He is not willing to extend his liability to himself as a private person, which goes with a VOF.

 

A STG is for do good activities and so on, not a practical way to run a business since a STG is not owned by anyone.

 

best of luck

Joost

[Millicent]

2 hours ago, Hans van den Bergh said:

 

Then questions like these should also be answered...

Indeed, this is exactly what we are aiming to do, these questions were raised while we were working on the business plan :) 

[Millicent]

2 hours ago, Joost Rietveld said:

Hi Millicent

 

These kind of expectations always raise my eyebrows. You better be really, really, really sure that this person delivers on these expectations, otherwise you are left with a partner that does nothing, but stands to gain from your labour....and you won't be the first...

 

Furthermore: the business plan should indeed have a paragraph about the legal entity. From here we can hardly give advice on this, since we have no idea what your plans are. 

 

A VOF seems a logical place to start from, since incorporation requires little, but it also is the most unpractical form if one of the partners has a different input. A BV is more likely, not in the last place since apparently your partner already is an entrepreneur with multiple companies. He is not willing to extend his liability to himself as a private person, which goes with a VOF.

 

A STG is for do good activities and so on, not a practical way to run a business since a STG is not owned by anyone.

 

best of luck

Joost

Thank you very much for your input Joost!