Finding A Business Partner on Craigslist: Good or Bad Idea?

[Owen]

Title says it all.

[vangogh]

Awful idea. It's among the last places I would look for a business partner. Why are you looking for a business partner?

[Harold Mansfield]

If there were a list of business or start up bad ideas I'm pretty sure that would be #1.

If this idea was a dinosaur it would be Tyrannosaurus Rex.
If this idea were a boat, it would be named Titanic.

Seriously, this is the New Coke of bad ideas.

[Bobjob]

I agree. Your title should read "bad or terrible idea".

I consider myself competent and I peruse the business section of Craigslist regularly. In three years I only remember one that would consider and still didn't. I did find a graphic artist on Craigslist to do work for my business and he did great work.

To find a partner I'd network friends, family, business associates, maybe local chamber of commerce.

[Harold Mansfield]

At the risk of repeating myself over and over again. You're a minor. You cannot legally enter into a business agreement with ANYONE. If you keep ignoring that fact all you'll be doing is setting yourself up to be screwed over and wasting a lot of time and money to do it.

[Owen]

I need to be 18 right now. Why can't time fly? I would do anything to become 18 right now, I am NOT a fan of this waiting game. People say "enjoy your childhood" but what am I enjoying? All I do is make websites, hang out with my girlfriend, and play baseball. That and work. That really isn't much childhood, during adulthood the only difference is you have more job and more girlfriend and less baseball, along with extra expenses, but I really couldn't care less about baseball. If anyone on this forum is actually a wizard please make me an adult. It would be greatly appreciated.

[Harold Mansfield]

I need to be 18 right now. Why can't time fly? I would do anything to become 18 right now, I am NOT a fan of this waiting game. People say "enjoy your childhood" but what am I enjoying? All I do is make websites, hang out with my girlfriend, and play baseball.


Seriously, if you have this much free time, you should be taking more classes and trying to get into college early. Your problem isn't just your age, it's that you want everything now but don't know anything and don't have the patience to learn it. You just want it. Trust me when I tell you, that's never going to work. You should be taking advantage of this time to become what you want to be, not complaining about how much free time you have. You aren't going to get the knowledge by sheer will and magic.

[Bobjob]

Owen, do you know how the cloud works? Many people don't (like myself) and want to learn. If you are a patience person, teaching others how to use the cloud could be lucrative.

I second what Harold is saying.

[Flor]

It depends. You just have to be careful. I think there are good people and bad people on craigslist. Sometimes going into business with someone you know or a family member could also be a death wish. IMHO

[Brand Whisperer]

Age only limits you when you decide it does. 90 year old people run marathons. The
greatest realization you can ever have is what you can achieve is damn near limitless.

As to finding a partner on craigslist... MAKE IT HAPPEN ON YOUR OWN! Partners suck
no matter where they are from. Including friends.

[Harold Mansfield]

Age only limits you when you decide it does.
Or when the law prohibits you from entering into a legal contract with others.

[Owen]

Or when the law prohibits you from entering into a legal contract with others.

That comeback was fire

[Paul]

Seriously, if you have this much free time, you should be taking more classes and trying to get into college early. Your problem isn't just your age, it's that you want everything now but don't know anything and don't have the patience to learn it. You just want it. Trust me when I tell you, that's never going to work. You should be taking advantage of this time to become what you want to be, not complaining about how much free time you have. You aren't going to get the knowledge by sheer will and magic.

I think I've seen Harold and others give you similar advice a few times. Heed the advice!!! Get the romantic vision of entreprenuership out of your head for now. Replace it with a realistic vision. As Harold says PREPARE! Think education and experience. A partner is not the answer. Your own ability is and you have to develop that.

[Brand Whisperer]

Or when the law prohibits you from entering into a legal contract with others.

Depends on if a legal contract is needed. When starting out and depending the type of business it
isn't very hard to get around.

[Brand Whisperer]

Never fear starting to get a business going. There are 'kids' that have
built million dollar businesses before they are 20.

Careful on the advice you get from forums. Including mine

[Harold Mansfield]

Depends on if a legal contract is needed. When starting out and depending the type of business it
isn't very hard to get around.


But incorrect ;)

Never fear starting to get a business going. There are 'kids' that have
built million dollar businesses before they are 20.

A minor cannot legally enter into a contract. There is no getting around the law. Of course you can always find a way to beat the system between parties, but that's not going to help you in court or when you need to prove that you have ownership of something or fighting for your share of the profits.

Owen already knows that unless he's emancipated from his parents, that he needs a parent or guardian to act on his behalf until he's 18 or whatever the law is in his state. We've discussed this before. And even if he is emancipated, the state still awards an advocate to you until you're 18.

It's really cut and dry. A "kid" cannot legally form a corporation, get a business license, or anything else required to start or run a business. Any example you can bring up has a parent or legal guardian involved.

What he's doing now...website work for extra cash is fine. But when you start talking about entering into legal partnership agreements with adults, any agreement with a minor is null and void and no credible business person would do it. So any situation would start out as an illegal contract or agreement, falsifying documents, and fraud and it only gets worse from there.

So my advice that a minor should not be searching on Craig's List for a "business partner" is solid and responsible advice to give to a kid on a public forum.

[Owen]

A minor cannot legally enter into a contract. There is no getting around the law. Of course you can always find a way to beat the system between parties, but that's not going to help you in court or when you need to prove that you have ownership of something or fighting for your share of the profits.

Owen already knows that unless he's emancipated from his parents, that he needs a parent or guardian to act on his behalf until he's 18 or whatever the law is in his state. We've discussed this before. And even if he is emancipated, the state still awards an advocate to you until you're 18.

It's really cut and dry. A "kid" cannot legally form a corporation, get a business license, or anything else required to start or run a business. Any example you can bring up has a parent or legal guardian involved.

What he's doing now...website work for extra cash is fine. But when you start talking about entering into legal partnership agreements with adults, any agreement with a minor is null and void and no credible business person would do it. So any situation would start out as an illegal contract or agreement, falsifying documents, and fraud and it only gets worse from there.

So my advice that a minor should not be searching on Craig's List for a "business partner" is solid and responsible advice to give to a kid on a public forum.

Tru


There are 'kids' that have
built million dollar businesses before they are 20.

Those kids have really supportive parents. When you see "10 year old business prodigy makes a business" it's all bull crap. All that is is making everyone believe this kid is so smart when their parents most likely did 99.99% of the work and just slapped their kid's face on it.

[Harold Mansfield]

Those kids have really supportive parents. When you see "10 year old business prodigy makes a business" it's all bull crap. All that is is making everyone believe this kid is so smart when their parents most likely did 99.99% of the work and just slapped their kid's face on it.

Exactly! It's all marketing. Do you really think a 10 year old has the education and leadership skills to run a million dollar business, make complex logistics and legal decisions, and manage grown ass people? Yeah, in the movies. But not in real life. The kid may have had an idea or sparked an idea from the parents, but after that the kid is pretty much Morris the Cat. The company mascot and marketing tool.

[Owen]

Exactly! It's all marketing. Get real, do you really think a 10 year old has the education and leadership skills to run a million dollar business, make complex logistics and legal decisions, and manage grown ass people? Yeah, in the movies. But not in real life. The kid may have had an idea or sparked an idea from the parents, but after that the kid is pretty much Morris the Cat. The company mascot and marketing tool.

Bingo. Your brain isn't even developed enough until you're 13 to even be able to understand what's even happening. At 10 I was interested into business, sure, but that was still bare bones. I still had no idea how complex business really is. There is no way i could ever remember and know what I know today back when I was 10. To be honest if for some ungodly reason a 10 year old is the CEO of a company, there is no way I could respect a 10 year old as my boss.

[Bobjob]

I think I've seen Harold and others give you similar advice a few times. Heed the advice!!! Get the romantic vision of entreprenuership out of your head for now. Replace it with a realistic vision. As Harold says PREPARE! Think education and experience. A partner is not the answer. Your own ability is and you have to develop that.

Paul is right Owen. Unfortunately we are old. We know what changes we would make to our own youth if we could turn back time and we try and instill those in you. We were young once with visions of grandeur. I watched Robin Leach every week. I knew I'd have 50 million one day. But earning 50 million is about as easy as winning it in a lottery. You have a gift right now of time. You have time to invest in yourself. Your years last a whole year, ours only last a few months. When you get older you no longer have that time and you wish you did. You wish you had time to invest in yourself and you wish you had invested in yourself 10-20 years earlier.

[BrandonL]

There are several reasons why this is a bad idea. Many people have given reasons. Another reason is that I don't see a serious, competent individual responding to an ad on Craigslist like this. Most people who respond will automatically be people you probably will not want to partner with.