Need Advice on a Large Project

[DesertLord]

I am a partner in a web design business. My partners brother wants us to create a website for him. It's a very ambitious website that has a lot of potential. He has given us the option of having a piece of the business, or a regular hourly pay. I'm not sure what to do. He is a successful business person so it's not like he's any idiot with a half baked idea. He will be putting up a lot of money for it, mostly for marketing. I'm not sure how much but I'm thinking $10,000 - $50,000. Then for the first year or two he wants to put all the revenue back into the business for marketing.
So I guess my first question is, what would you do? I sure could use the money now, but I don't NEED it. This site alone could probably keep me busy for 1 to 2 months. If I got a percentage of the business I probably wouldn't see a dime for a year or two. And then it could be a complete flop or it could be a windfall.
The other question is, if we were to take a percentage, what is fair? My partner mentioned 20% for us (10% each). I thought that seemed a little low. We'd be doing all the technical work, he'd front the money and handle marketing. Suggestions?

[jtara]

It's a bad idea to do business with relatives.

It's an even worse idea to do business with somebody else's relatives. :)

Take the salary.

[shigamoto]

I would have chosen the part of the business, sometimes you have to take chances, and if you don't need the money. But do remember that most new businesses fail. So it is not a clearcut case, is the business idea viable? Will he be able to make money off the site? How? Do you see that users can or will be able to use the site for something? For what? Are there other big players in the field? Does he have estimates on how much he is going to make? How big is the market estimated by him?

If you can't answer all the questions then I would not go for it.
Also make sure that the deal is in writing prepared by an independent lawyer with no ties to your brothers relative. Doing business with relatives involved is not always such a good idea as the previous post suggested.

[dragsterboy]

It's a bad idea to do business with relatives.

It's an even worse idea to do business with somebody else's relatives. :)

Take the salary.

I have to say that this is very true.

I would suggest that you take the salary.

[DesertLord]

Lol, everybody is somebody elses relatives.
In all seriousness, thanks for the input. Keep it coming if anybody has any more. I am a bit uncomfortable with the idea of working with my partners family, but it does seem like it has a lot of potential. The idea is viable. Users could definately use the site and he could make money from it. This came about because he uses a few websites regularly for his business, but was frustrated with all of them. So his great idea is a site that would be perfect for people just like him. I did a little research on one of the sites he is particularly frustrated with and the amount of money they bring in is staggering. So the market is there. I don't know him very well though, so I don't know if he is the right person to make to make this work or not.
Enough rambling, thanks again.

[henry0]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld!

I'll take a smaller % and enough $ to cover development cost so at least if it does not work you will have covered its cost of dev.

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In addition look at the possibility offered to create new portable scripts that could be sold to other clients :)
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