Partnership Agreement for Glass and Aluminum Fabricators

What a good one includes

• A detailed inventory of who contributed what, specifying whether expensive machinery like CNC routers or glass cutting tables are partnership property or remain individual assets.
• Clear definitions of each partner's daily responsibilities, distinguishing between fabrication management, on-site installation, and administrative duties like quoting and invoicing.
• A specific formula outlining how revenue is split after deducting overhead costs, raw material expenses, and subcontractor fees.
• A clear process for making major business choices, such as purchasing heavy equipment or signing high-value commercial glazing contracts, including a tie-breaker mechanism.
• A pre-agreed valuation method and buyout process if one partner decides to retire, leave the fabrication business, or sell their share.
• Ownership rights for custom extrusion designs or specialized fabrication techniques developed during the partnership.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Many fabricators bring their own specialized tools to a shared shop without documenting ownership, leading to bitter disputes over who owns what if the partnership dissolves.
• Relying on verbal agreements about how manual labor on the shop floor balances against cash investments almost always leads to resentment over profit splits.
• Partners often forget to define who bears the financial responsibility for costly mistakes, like mismeasured glass orders or structural failures on-site.
• Failing to restrict a departing partner from immediately opening a rival fabrication shop down the street can decimate your local client base.

Frequently asked questions