Lorraine Guyo is one of the most influential ladies in Zimbabwe in 2019. A beautiful young lady who was propelled to stardom through Social Media. Her profile has been on the rise thanks to skits produced and directed by her former boyfriend Thomas Chizhange who is the founder of Zimbabwe’s Facebook Page of the year, Thomas Chizhanje and Friends.
Grey Contract
Thomas Chizhanje carried out a lot of work for Lorraine in sponsoring her startups and both parties agreed that he was going to recoup his costs once her career took off. Typical of most startups, trouble started when they received close to US$700.00 from the monetised Youtube channel and sponsors.
Then the couple split leading to controversies regarding the share of funds. Thom then took his money back without agreement and now Lorraine is crying foul. She wants her monies back in full and is claiming her ex boyfriend stole his money.
Sounds familiar?
This is a common story of startups, you have financial and other resources challenges at the first and enter into informal relationships or partnerships and trouble starts when your business starts to take off. All sorts of messy legal stuff start to crop up and some can be costly or leave your brand in tatters.
Who is putting funds into your project? Get a formal contract.
Who is volunteering? Get a formal contract for the contribution.
Someone partnering with you? Get a formal contract to protect yourself in future.
Falling in love with a business partner? Disaster in the making, when the relationship turns sour, you will have huge bills to pay.
Our forum legal contributor, Namatirai Ruzvidzo has posted a number of legal advice on the forum with some of them already on this site. Do look forward to more useful legal advice on the forum.
Toughie one, business and leisure is a no, no