Business opportunity sanity check and some questions

frayne

Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Joined
Oct 18, 2002
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3,908
Location
Chattanooga
I was recently approached by a good friend who I have known for over thirty year about a business opportunity and just wanted to bounce it off the forum, so to speak and gain some insight that I may be lacking due to never having started a business or participated in this type of venture. Here is the scenario, my friend sells new widgets. By virtue of his position he can’t buy old or used widget for his company even though he knows people who have these times for sale and his company does buy old used widgets. He would like for me to set up a business where I buy the old used widgets and sell them to his company for a small profit. The profit would then be split with him. Basically it would be a brokerage type business shuffling invoices and paying some labor fees for palletizing up the used widgets. I realize that I would probably need an EIN number and have to furnish contract labor with 1099 MISC for payments over $600 as well as furnishing my friend with a 1099 MISC for payments made to him. I have some concerns from both a liability standpoint as well as an ethics stand point as to how kosher this may be. Just wondering what others here might have to offer as far as advice, cautions or concerns.
FYI: The widgets are basically materials that have been salvaged from construction and demolition sites.
Thanks in advance for any and all advice.
 
Would not touch it purely on an ethical basis.
 
Not only unethical but sounds like blatant stealing.

If your buddy can direct the company to buy the widgets for $100 a unit but instead has you buy them and then he directs the company to buy the widgets from you for $110 them he just effectively stole $10 from the company...
 
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