Why Every Business Partnership Needs a ‘Divorce Plan’

I was talking to a seasoned family business expert the other day, someone who’s spent decades working with couples, families, and friends in business together.

He said something that really got me thinking:

“You need to understand how the ‘divorce’ will work before you even get started.”

Whether it’s a husband and wife, a parent and child, or two best mates, the message was the same. Every business needs a partnership agreement. Not for when things are good, but for if, or when, they’re not.

He talked about how people go into business full of trust and optimism, believing their bond will carry them through anything. But when things go wrong (and they sometimes do) without a framework in place, the fallout can destroy both the business and the relationship.

Here’s my confession: Andrew and I don’t have a formal partnership agreement. Not yet, anyway. But that conversation made me realise we’ve been missing a critical piece.

A business partnership, especially one built on love, needs both scaffolding and structure.

The scaffolding is your legal and financial agreements. It holds everything in place while you're building. It’s the temporary, external framework that allows you to work safely and, crucially, get out safely if you need to.

But scaffolding alone doesn’t make a strong business. That’s where emotional capacity comes in. That’s your bricks and mortar. The solid, weight-bearing structure that gives the business its true strength and stability.

Some businesses get the scaffolding sorted, but neglect the emotional build. When cracks appear - resentments, burnout, misaligned values - they collapse inward. All they’ve got left is a contract and a court date.

Others, like us in our early years, focus on the emotional side; relying on love, shared purpose, and a whole lot of late-night wine-fuelled chats. But we didn’t always maintain that emotional work. We got complacent. At times, we even got arrogant, thinking we were immune to the issues other business partners faced.

Then we had another kid. The business grew. The pressure mounted. I remember driving to work one day and feeling like I’d been kidnapped. I wanted to jump out of the car and run.

That was the moment we knew something had to change.

We started investing in ourselves and in each other. Coaching. Hard conversations. Learning to talk honestly about competitiveness, ego, sacrifice, and who was carrying what.

Over time, our emotional structure got stronger. These days, we can hold weight we never could before. But even with all that growth, we now see that having the scaffolding (the legal safety net) isn’t a betrayal of trust. It’s an act of care.

Because when you’ve built something precious together, you owe it to yourselves to protect it from every angle.

So here’s the real takeaway:
Don’t rely on love alone. Don’t wait until burnout or betrayal forces your hand. Build your bricks and mortar. Maintain it. And while you’re at it, make sure the scaffolding’s up too - just in case you ever need a safe exit.

The Co-Founder Couple can help you with both the scaffolding and the structure. While we specialise in building the emotional capacity to succeed, we can also recommend some incredible experts to help with the legal aspects of your partnership.