​My Father Tricked Me Out of My Share in Our Business

A year ago, I started a business with my father and his partner. We had a clear agreement about how the ownership would be split: I would get 25% since I was putting in 30% of the capital, and his partner would get 15% for handling marketing, even though he wasn’t investing any money. The rest went to my dad.

At first, things were going great. We were all working together, and everything seemed smooth. But soon, the partner started slacking off. He stopped showing up to meetings, wasn’t doing any of the marketing he was supposed to handle, and just wasn’t involved at all. It got to the point where we needed his signature to open a business bank account, but he refused to cooperate. Eventually, we paid him to leave the business just to move forward without him.

After he was gone, it was just me and my dad running the show. We made a new agreement where I was supposed to get 45% of the company, since I’d be taking on more responsibilities—managing the marketing, overseeing employees, and even training them. It was a big step up from what I had been doing before. But when it came time to sign the papers, I noticed that instead of the 45% we had agreed on, my dad only gave me 15%. I confronted him about it, and he assured me that he’d fix it later but asked me to sign for now so we could deal with the bank.

I should mention that my dad is married to another woman, and she’s been a constant drain on him financially. That’s part of the reason I pushed for the 45%—to protect my investment and ensure I had a solid stake in the company for the work I was putting in. But after I signed, he kept stalling. For months, he told me he was working on getting the documents sorted, but nothing changed. He stopped including me in key decisions, didn’t pay me a salary or share profits, and used company money for his own personal expenses. Whenever I tried to bring this up, it turned into an argument.

Fast forward to today—things reached a breaking point. I found a new supplier that I wanted to work with, and I told my dad I’d take full responsibility for the sales, shipping, and marketing. I even paid for the marketing campaign with my own money. After a couple of days, the campaign was already working, and we had some solid sales lined up. Then, out of nowhere, my dad tells me we have to cancel everything because another business connected to the supplier called him, complaining that our prices were undercutting theirs.

Mind you, I was handling everything, and I was ready to cover the costs of inventory and marketing myself. But he insisted we drop the supplier and shut everything down. We got into a massive argument, and I told him I wanted out of the company and my money back. He flat-out refused and isn’t willing to repay what I’ve put into the business.

So here I am—after a year of putting my heart, soul, and money into this business, my dad has completely sidelined me, refuses to fix the ownership split, and won’t return my investment. I don’t know what to do next. Do I take legal action? Try to negotiate one last time? I’m feeling lost, frustrated, and betrayed.

Has anyone been through something similar, or have any advice on what steps I should take?

UPDATE

For some more context on the situation with my dad and the business: the reason he decided to drop the new supplier I brought in was because one of our competitors vendors, who also works with the new supplier, was upset that the marketing campaign I launched had prices lower than what he was selling for. He felt like we were undercutting him and losing him sales.

Since my dad handles most of the customer inquiries, this vendor got in touch with him directly and was really aggressive, basically telling my dad to stop the campaign and raise our prices. I told my dad that it’s none of this guy’s business how much we sell for or profit from—it’s our business, not his.

To be clear, the lower price I set wasn’t permanent; it was just a tester to see how the market would respond. And, to top it off, the new supplier didn’t care at all what price we sold at—they were totally fine with it. But instead of talking things through with me, my dad decided, on his own, to drop the new supplier altogether. He didn’t want to deal with them even thought I was the one who was going to buy the new inventory with my own savings and do all the work for the new supplier my self cause I was sick of him sucking up the company revenue for his personal use so I decided to take care of this new supplier and handle all the finances and revenues myself on a separate account to keep the business going so he might felt his little piggy bank will get effected , and he highlighted he didn’t like the way the guy from the other vendor talked to him, so he just made the call to cut ties with the new supplier, even though I had already invested my time and money into making it work.

The frustrating part is, the vendor my dad wants to stick with has been unreliable for over a month. They’ve had major supply shortages and haven’t given us anything in weeks. We’ve been stuck with no product and lots of delayed delivery’s and canceled orders cause of the delays , and I found a solution to keep the business moving forward by bringing in this new supplier. But instead of appreciating that, my dad just shut it down, without a valid reason.

We’re supposed to be partners, and yet he’s making these big decisions on his own, based on how someone talked to him, rather than what’s best for the business. I’m honestly at a loss here. I tried to step up and save us from the supply issues, but he’s making it impossible to move forward.