Legal Articles

Joint ventures are a powerful way for business owners to collaborate, share expertise, and accelerate growth. When structured well, a joint venture can deliver strong commercial results. However, a failed joint venture can be costly, time-consuming, and damaging to relationships.

Many failed joint ventures follow the same patterns: unclear roles, poor planning, inadequate agreements, and mismatched expectations. In this Onyx Legal guide, we outline 11 practical strategies to support the success of a joint venture and explain how to avoid the common causes of failed joint ventures.

A common question we hear from business owners is “what is a joint venture?”, often followed closely by “how is a joint venture different from a partnership?” A joint venture (often referred to as a JV) is a business arrangement where two or more parties collaborate for a specific purpose while remaining independent businesses.

Running a business is challenging, and managing your workforce to ensure it is the right size for your business needs is rarely easy or predictable. For many Australian businesses, workforce planning and redundancy decisions arise unexpectedly rather than as part of long-term planning.

The closure of a major client, the completion of a significant project, or an unexpected slowdown in market demand can all affect business profitability. These events often prompt a business review to assess whether the current workforce structure remains sustainable and compliant with Australian employment law.

Going into business, whether it’s the first time or the tenth, can be exciting and terrifying all at the same time. What if it works? What if it doesn’t? Reflecting on some of the transactions we’ve been involved in over the years, we’ve identified the following 5 mistakes purchasers often make when buying a business. Many of these issues mirror problems we see in reviewing a buy-sell agreement, or other types of business contracts and data sharing agreements during transactions.