I have to make a business decision for the longevity of our company. I have a partner who has been nice, and has paid about 50% of startup and maintenance cost, but I am feeling a bit hesitant in advertising his services. We met at work were I am the MIS Directory and he is the e-marketing director. He began extolling how good of a web designer he is and how many clients he gets, I was exstatic and before I knew we decided to launch a joint venture.

I was eagerly waiting his first work we decided to do the design portion of the company first. When he completed it he was excited and said it is some of the best work he has done. I goto the site and *BLAM* I am hit with a realization that he is not as good as he said he was, or I anticipated.

I feel we will not get good business if any customer with some artistic knowledge viewed his site. I mean it is a total "just pickedup HTML for DUMMIES" and wrote a site with. And if future customers look at his work they will also be hesitant to sign up. When I try approaching him he tells me how good the site design is and I am to critical. But it is not a design site, it doesn't hold merit to the other designer sites on here.

Please let me know am I just being to critical? Or, is there another way to approach him so he takes me seriously and not get so "hurt"? Or does he have a lot to learn, and I would be best looking for a new partner?

If you want to view his site to give an honest critique or know what I'm dealing with please post here or PM and I will PM you the URL as I do not want to be advertising his site on here. But I am in a dilmena and just need outside opinions to decide what I do from here.

TIA

I think communication is the key when it comes to partners. I've had a partner in the web biz for years, and hes always been there for me. We tell each other what we dont like or do like about each others efforts in building or maturing a company. Basically if one of us does something and it just *sucks* to put it midly :D well... we'll let each other know about it. I dont really have any advice as to how you would approach your partner about it that you might say, in a suttle way, that if we need to stay in business or draw some attention, we need something that keeps them coming back. Or, show him other websites and how their designed and say this is what Id like to have, (without stealing someone elses idea, know what I mean?)

Choosing another partner is entirely up to you. Some people learn faster then others, and some dont.
Good luck

Originally posted by DigiCrime
We tell each other what we dont like or do like about each others efforts in building or maturing a company. Basically if one of us does something and it just *sucks* to put it midly :D well... we'll let each other know about it.

I tried that but he feels that his design is better :( The first approach was he designed the site to pop up new browser windows for the table cells he was laying out. I responded with "people hate popups and you are designing the entire site to be a popup???". His response was that it shows off that we are able to use new technology. If you really know technology then you should know when and when not to use it, not use just for the sole purpose of showing it??? Especially when market studies show that people hate popups why imitate it?

The problem is that we are both adults, and he says he does not take it the wrong way when given constructive critism, but he does. For instance the desing website is ONE GIANT image not sliced or anything, and the fonts are all times new roman and it is very dark...

Alas, maybe it is just me not knowing how to proceed.

hmm maybe not... If hes so good at designing, at which he says he is? Bring up a few sites that have some designs that you like and ask him to design something similar. As a testing skillz to prove to him, he aint that good. If your looking to get ahead in the bizness, just like any other place of business, if it cant be done right... time to find yourself a new profession and get someone else is how I see it. Harsh, but what can you do http://forums.off-topic.net/images/smilies/dunno.gif

Originally posted by eyow
"people hate popups and you are designing the entire site to be a popup???". His response was that it shows off that we are able to use new technology."Wow! These guys really have mastered that whiz-bang new pop-up technology! -- The can open WHOLE NEW BROWSER WINDOWS!!!"

Sorry, couldn't resist. :)

Tough situation, since he's a friend and co-worker and since you're already this far down the road. The bad news is that you have only two options -- put up with it and let the business suffer, or just sit down with him for a serious talk.

Or, depending on what kind of agreements you have with him, can you just hook up with another designer and let this relationship just wither away? A couple of years ago I hired a friend to design a site for one of my clients. Usually I would just piece out various elements of the job, but I wanted to help the guy out and he showed me some sites the company he worked for had done -- and I took his word for it that he had a major role.

He delivered a completed site and it was just pathetic. Crude graphics, wouldn't display anything like intended in Netscape, etc. I was pretty disappointed. I was pretty ticked off. But it was a friendship I wanted to keep, so I just paid him for his work, and started over -- completing the job the way I normally did. Paid other people for their work creating a whole new site, and ate the loss. And learned a lesson.

So since then he's asked me a couple of times if I have any work for him, and just say things have been slow...

i was in a simular situation

i started earlier this year, my partner paid 50% of the startup costs, which wasent much money initially. So a month went by, he put in 0 effort, no time, no customers, nothing. It was 100% my work. So i tried to break it off nicely, and gave him some options, either i would leave, and he could pay me out, or he would leave and pay me out. He wouldent do either one. So i paid him out, and told him i would help him get started on his own if he needed. Needless to say, my court date was a few weeks ago. He tried to sue me for $5000.00 in small claims.

I won :D

Originally posted by ntwaddel
i was in a simular situation

either i would leave, and he could pay me out, or he would leave and pay me out.

Congrats on the win!

But I can see why he didn't choose either, with either option he was still paying you :D

Originally posted by eyow


Congrats on the win!

But I can see why he didn't choose either, with either option he was still paying you :D

no, either he was paying me, or i was paying him. He just wanted to stay, because i was busting my butt, and he was getting a free ride. Everyone wants something for nothing, right?

Originally posted by ntwaddel


Everyone wants something for nothing, right?

That is so true.

He is bringing in a couple of clients, and some of these people are willing to pay him $200-300 for a website design, but the problem I see here is putting those sites in *our* portfolio. The site designs (the ones he has shown me) are really lacking. And I'm afraid once our clients become versed in the internet and start to surf around they will feel totally ripped off by the design they were given :(

And of course they'll badmouth as and it'll grow and grow and grow, and everyone already hates us (or the design part) because all our clients will have a bad feeling in their mouth.

Sam,

If you really want to keep the relationship and don't break his heart... Maybe this could work? Get a real pro designer to design a new website template and tell him "hey i got this for free!" Thing is if he really has a big ego, this might not work too...... just a food of thought.

Been there, done that.

You have to see the site to know why Sam is so dissapointed! - It really sucks bad (Sam - feedback is in your PM)

I guess the real issue is not so much that he came up with a design like that - it's always the delusional nature of people that think garbage is gold that is more upsetting, especially if you have to deal with them closely.

I think Digicrime made a spot on statement about communication. Having a partner doesn't work if you can't be honest & open

200-300 to design a site? s**t i wish I could get that much. I been designing websites for so dang long that I rarely charge anyone for it cause I like doing it so much. I just got done redesigning a site i webmaster that took me two days, i didnt charge for it cause im proud of it :D

PM coming your way if you dont mind

Thanks for sharing my pain. I have tried being open and honest but he doesn't seem to get it. We were out having our smoke break and he asked for a couple of mottos for his site (or his part of the business). I gave him a couple:

We're not that bad
At least we are not poisonous
Don't JUDGE us by our website

But he did not like any one of them. I'm just hoping that if any visitors go to his site someone will have the audacity to email him on the type of crime he is committing, but I don't want them to refer to me or this thread since he does not know that I'm asking this:blush: . I remember he said after I design **** I'll design BlueDog. When I saw what he was doing I immediately got APlusMedia to design the BlueDog site.

But I am really leaning on the dust him part and just outsourcing designs to the ppl on this forum.