Small business owners sometimes run into difficulties with their business partners after much time has passed since they first set up the business. They come to discover that the operating agreement either does not address their problem or the result is not what they intended. Small business owners should take care to draft their controlling documents by considering as many scenarios as possible.
Members of limited liability companies are given considerable leeway to craft a management and business structure as they see fit. This control is one of the reasons why the LLC form is attractive to those engaged in new business ventures. The LLC’s operating agreement is the contractual means by which the members will determine the business structure – and courts continuously warn parties that failure to craft the operating agreement carefully will sometimes force unintended results.