Your business partner wants half of your earnings from a somewhat similar side-business you started on your own: How do you resolve this?

Two people, Felicia and Samantha, become business partners and open a daycare center. They split the work evenly, split the expenses and the split the earnings 50–50. The daycare happens to be located in Felicia’s house, but this might not be relevant to the discussion.

This arrangement works well for several years. Felicia decides to go back to school to get a masters in special education for children. After several years of night and weekend school, Felicia gets licensed and starts work with a couple of clients. This requires her to leave during the day for a couple of hours a few times a week.

Samantha has a problem with this. She doesn’t want Felicia leaving in the middle of the day, with only Samantha left to run the daycare in her absence. To resolve this, Felicia hires a licensed babysitter to fill in for her and pays the temp from her own earnings from the daycare business.

Samantha is still not satisfied. She believes that they both got into the childcare business together and that all earnings should be shared. Samantha wants Felicia to give her 50% of the earnings she makes as a special ed teacher. Needless to say, Felicia does not agree.

The question is: how to resolve this disagreement?

Felicia and Samantha are related (a major no-no to get into business with family, I know). The daycare didn’t really have any start-up costs, so it’s not as if one partner can buy out the other. Dissolving the business altogether might cause family problems.

Any and all solutions and advice for this problem are welcome.