If you are a co-owner of a business, either as a partner or a shareholder, it is essential that you have a written agreement that lays down the rights, responsibilities and operating duties of the business co-owners, and one which enables you to exit the business without facing opposition or dissention from your co-owners.

Ideally, you should enter into an agreement at the beginning of your relationship: before or shortly after start up. In practice, however, most small business owners do not enter into agreements at start up and hope that nothing goes wrong before they get round to organising the documentation in due course!

But, it is never too late: if you do not have an agreement, the time to get one is now, as you never know when events will conspire against you.

Shareholders (or partnership) agreements should cover all operational and ownership aspects of the business relationship between co-owners, including when and how the right to buy co-owners shares and interests arise. A shareholders' agreement is an integral part of your business planning and without one all your exit plans could come to nought.

A summary of what should be contained in a shareholders agreement can be found by clicking on the Shareholders' Agreement brochure link, whilst a fuller description of the contents can be found by clicking on The importance of a Shareholders' Agreement article link.

We can produce a shareholders' or partnership agreement for you. This can be done by visiting your offices, collecting the relevant information, discussing the various options with you and producing an agreement. The cost for such an agreement is £950 for a standard small to medium sized enterprise (“SME”). If your business is larger, or if there are complications in the ownership structure, we will provide you with a quotation before we begin the task.

To arrange for us to telephone you for a no-obligation discussion, all you have to do is click on and complete the Enquiry Form below and submit it to us. During our telephone call we will confirm our price for producing the agreement and, if appropriate, arrange a meeting with you. The standard price of a shareholders' (or partnership) agreement for a SME where we visit your business is £950. If for any reason the price is different, this will be stated during our initial telephone discussion and confirmed in writing before we proceed with any chargeable work.

If you have a shareholders' agreement you might wish to check its adequacy for your current circumstances by checking the contents against The Importance of a Shareholders' Agreement article. If you are concerned about your agreement, contact us through the Enquiry Form link below and we will telephone you to discuss how we can help.