At the recent APP conference "Community Pharmacy for the future: Building Processes, Partnerships and Solutions", Mark Fitzgerald, Solicitor Director, Guild Lawyers; Martin Reukers, National Commercial Lending Manager, Guild Commercial Finance and Peter Saccasan, Executive Director & Director of Pharmacy Services, Guild Accountants outlined a list of areas pharmacists need to consider when thinking about partnerships.

This is the "Top 10" list of issues to be considered:

Guild Group Partnerships "Top 10"

• Have clarity on the deal and discuss the hard issues.
• Document the agreement and sign it off - BEFORE signing / paying over money
• If you can't document it, don't rely on it.
• Have documents that cover the entire structure.
• Have a structure that suits your goals.
• Put finance in place in accordance with the structure
• Maintain equity in terms of security, risk and profits.
• Know the cashflow of the business AND the partners.
• Both vendor and purchaser need to understand what cash flows out of the deal
• If you are retiring, talk to the experts BEFORE you sign the contract.

At the conclusion of the partnerships session, participants joined a round table discussion. View the roundtable discussion paper here.

Want to know more?

Listen to the Pharmacy Sound Bites for an introduction to a number of business issues affecting pharmacists.