Thanks for these! Very interesting:<p>&quot;... they offered to set up a payment plan to reimburse <i>the money he had spent</i> on the restaurant.&quot;<p>Which goes to show - it&#x27;s a bad idea to do anything before terms have been put down on paper! It is quite amazing when you first start doing business by yourself (as a contractor, entrepreneur, or even chef it seems) how often people &quot;go back on their word&quot;.<p>What happens is that both sides have a different idea of the deal, probably picking on whatever hints were in the conversation to interpret them in the most favorable light possible; and in some cases, it&#x27;s just a case of one side last-minute-changing the deal because they feel the situation has progressed to give them more leverage.<p>In this case, the disagreement could easily have been avoided if they had typed up a term sheet and preferably some kind of legally enforceable shareholder&#x27;s agreement BEFORE the payments were made.<p>Now begins the PR battle as both sides will try and influence public opinion to protect their reputation.