On a side note, I understand where the concern comes from, albeit I can understand why one would take personal offence as it is directed at a more personal concern rather than the direct question at hand, but I agree with the concern. In this world, people screw people over all the time and the only way to protect yourself is to try and keep your business endeavors as independent as possible. I'm talking about stuff like what happened with Defy Media. When you choose to work for others rather than yourself it generally isn't a smart business move and can cost you in the long term. Just know that the replies here are from those who want you to succeed!
I personally know a girl who ran a business with her husband and one day, out of the blue, he locked her out of their joint bank account, locked her out of her house, and took her two kids leaving her stranded without any money or place to live. It took her like 2+ years to get custody of her kids and she was in the process of suing last we spoke.
Regardless, running your business your way and by yourself is the safest and most profitable way to go about it. If you want to pay the guy for commission work as a contractor, that is your choice just please don't do a 50/50 that really short hands the model, aka yourself, who is doing most of the work in the end.
Piggy-backing on that, the owner of an independent site that I use for payment processing went through something similar recently. She posted this publicly to another cam forum, so fine to share. She's also a veteran camgirl/PSO/clip maker/etc., still active in addition to running her site.Her husband helped her out with administrative work on occasion (not a full partner/employee in the venture to my knowledge), but the marriage deteriorated until she filed for divorce. He was agreeable enough at first, then pulled a 180 and decided leaving was absolutely not acceptable, and since his name was on
all of her business accounts, he immediately took it upon himself to cancel every credit account, close every bank account, and change every login possible to all of her work accounts before she could get him off them in hopes of forcing her to stay. That included the ones she needed to pay her independent models. And he did that not once, but
twice, once again about a week after she got it unfucked the first time, all resulting in weeks of payment delays. I've worked with her ex-husband before because he helped her with payouts when she had to go out of country to deal with the FCP fiasco in person, and he always came across as professional, courteous, and timely. You know, the opposite of someone who locks an owner out of their
business bank accounts, thereby screwing over their employees, all in the name of vindictive spite.
I know another woman who, in the course of her divorce, got to enjoy the day her soon-to-be-ex 'accidentally' broke her computer while doing hardware 'upgrades' that she never asked for, and also sent her files after the divorce that definitely contained keyloggers if downloaded. He was happy to do b/g video content during the marriage though! And no, she won't touch that computer with a 10 foot pole until it's been professionally wiped and repaired; very smart lady.
I reiterate -- unless your partner is physically on camera with you day-in-day-out, that partner has exactly
jackshit of a reason to have access to your business dealings, including but not limited to: monetary accounts, social media, clip/video stores, live cam sites, PSO options, etc., even the password to your business computer. Even then, keep whatever you can separate so you're as protected as possible. Anything can deteriorate, anything can go wrong at any time. You and only you decide the control of your business; be careful who you give those keys to.
It's for these very same reasons that I could never advocate outsourcing work to someone except, perhaps, the building of a high-end website (which most models absolutely do not need what with wordpress and social media existing) because at the conclusion of the building, you get to change the password. Everything else -- social media, content sites, live sites, bank info -- should be 100% your responsibility and in your control, even if that means learning skills you aren't necessarily comfortable with. Business deals go wrong every day in the real world, and it can mean a loss of customers, certainly, but in porn? You can lose access to your entire career, personal privacy, and safety with the snap of someone's fingers. Let's just not folks.
