Sorry for the long read! But I could really use some advice here.A little backstory: three years ago I co-founded a medical equipment distribution company with two other business partners. One of my two partners is also the head of sales for the manufacturer of the devices that we were selling, let's call him Marvin, and he has kept that on the down-low from the manufacturer as obviously that's a huge conflict of interest. For personal financial reasons, I sold my share in the distribution business a year later and moved on with a regular 9-5 job. The distribution company has been doing quite well and is growing at a healthy rate, and I've been happy for them. I still stay in contact with one of my former partners, as he and I have been friends for nearly 15 years. Let's call him Pete. Pete and I aren't very close but I like him.Recently due to COVID I was laid off by my employer and I decided to start another medical equipment distribution company using the same successful business model, this time without any partners. I've been reaching out to my network through LinkedIn asking for advice on what devices and/or manufacturers that they think would be worth looking into, as this time around I don't have an "in" with a manufacturer that I did last time when my business partner Marvin got us in the door (obviously due to him being the director of sales for the manufacturer). One of the people that I reached out to a couple days ago is the president of the manufacturer that I and my former business was (and they still are) selling the devices for. I asked him if he recommended any manufacturers I should look into, and he asked me, why don't I sell his devices again? Good question.Herein lies the difficulty. I am very open to selling their devices again through my new business, it's a phenomenal profit margin, however my former business partners are still selling the same product and I would essentially be in direct competition with them at this point. That I'm not too concerned with. The issue is that Marvin, the head of sales for the manufacturer, is still one of the owners of my old distribution company that's selling their products, so I feel like he would be trying to sabotage me at every turn as I would have to work very closely with him to make sales through my new business.How should I navigate this? I don't want to spill the beans to the president of the manufacturer and cause a giant issue for my former partners but I would like to sell their products, there is a lot of money to be made on my end if I play my cards right. Should I speak to Marvin or Pete ahead of time to see if he's comfortable with this, as I think he would still be making money as the director of sales for the manufacturer if I were to sell their devices? I believe Marvin would be involved hands-on with any distribution agreement that I were to get, and he would be one of the manufacturer reps that would be running the product demos that I'd schedule, so I also feel like he would set me up for failure. It's obviously in his best interest (albeit unethically) to try and push leads and deals thru to the distribution company he owns.I'm trying to figure out how to navigate this. see hubwealthy.com/wealthy
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