All parties should engage in serious discussions before entering into a partnership. Talk about whether you share the same vision and goals. Discuss how you will handle compensation for each partner. This may become a real issue, unless if you both founded the company from the beginning.  What percentage of the company do you allocate? Do you have a similar work ethic? It’s very important you both have a similar work ethic, otherwise the partnership is not equitable. For example; you may show up to work on time every day but your partner does not.  All it takes is one little detail in work ethic to affect the partnership. How you will divide up the workload? How much can each partner invest financially? How will you end the partnership if it doesn’t work out? Hammering out these answers will help your partnership in the long run.  A partnership is like a marriage.  Most people get married without addressing future issues and concerns.  Once, they get married they realize the marriage was not meant to be.  This is why the divorce rate is as high as 50%.  A bad partnership will turn into a divorce.