BIO: Brett King is an Amazon bestselling author, a renowned commentator, and a globally respected speaker on the future of business.
STORY: Brett got into a partnership offering a five-day executive program in Dubai. The business was doing well until the global financial crisis hit in 2008. His business partner took over the company, but he had no experience in training, so it died in just a few months.
LEARNING: Have an advisory board for conflict resolution. Have an exit plan. Always have a shareholders’ agreement.
“Sometimes, the best thing you can do is to walk away.”
Brett King
Guest profile
Brett King is an Amazon bestselling author, a renowned commentator, and a globally respected speaker on the future of business. He has spoken in over 40 countries, to half a million people, on how technology is disrupting business, changing behavior, and influencing society.
Worst investment ever
Brett was teaching MBA in Hong Kong in 1999, and he got in touch with this gentleman running a trade association in the US for E-commerce specialists. The qualification he issued was the certified e-commerce consultant. He also ran a trade association or professional association for finance, and the certificate he issued was very successful when attached to the MBA program.
Brett started a mini MBA five-day executive program called the American Academy of financial management in Dubai. The program exploded within a few years, and the business was doing 3 to 4 million dollars a year in revenue. Brett relocated his family to Dubai and set up the international operation of this business in the free zone. But, to some extent, he ran the business in Dubai quite separately from the US business. But he had a contractual relationship with the US business as a licensed training organization. Within a couple of years of being in Dubai, Brett’s business represented about 95% of the total revenue of this new professional association.
Then the global financial crisis of 2008/2009 hit. His business partner in the trade association in the US got into financial trouble and decided that he would take over the operation in Dubai. He sent out legal notices to all the companies Brett was working with, notifying them they could only buy their certificates directly from him and not Brett. The partner didn’t understand the business, and when he took over, the company collapsed overnight.
Brett had put almost 10 years of his life into that business. Based on Brett’s trajectory, if the company had survived the financial crisis, it would be a $300 million business today.
Lessons learned
- If you’re going to work with someone in a business, make sure that you’re both on the same page in terms of the business strategy.
- Think about the divorce implications for a business. Also, if you decide to exit the company, have clear guidelines on what happens to the IP, how you deal with the employees and other elements as part of the business’s closure or evolution.
- Use an advisory board to help deal with disputes between the partners.
Andrew’s takeaways
- Have a trusted intermediary in your business partnership.
- Always have a shareholders’ agreement before the partners start working together.
Actionable advice
Get an excellent structural contract lawyer to help you put together the shareholders’ agreement and those initial structural elements of the business. Also, prepare yourself for the event that the company may not work, and you need to walk away from it.
No.1 goal for the next 12 months
Brett’s goal for the next 12 months is to get his finances back in order after a couple of years of disruption.
Parting words
“Whatever you’re going to do, do it so that it makes life better for fellow humans.”
Brett King
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