Figuring I couldn't hold out forever, I came back into town late last night, and went to work this morning.
Another rule in negotiating is that "the first person that talks loses", and while I'm very well aware of that rule, the partners didn't offer any sort of compromise in my absence, and despite what I've told them, me going to anyone outside the company is mostly just a bluff.
Therefore, I just wrote them with some compromise terms, and said "I'll agree to a 28% discount and 21 month terms, but, all the money must be in cash, paid at the time of closing." I also increased my salary request to $12K/month, and also wanted all the miscellaneous items I mentioned earlier, plus a few more. I've had no word back from them yet, other than a note that they'll pass it on.
In truth, I'm totally on board with the lawyer's "stall" plan now. Based on their past reactions, I don't expect them to agree to these terms, but hopefully at least they'll see I'm trying to do something. If I slowly start to give them what they want, but stall until the end of the year or into January, I'll still get what I want, with the one term I really want: all the cash up front.
I have to say, I'm also in a better mood after getting away for a few days, but I'm not in that good of a mood about this. If they counter-offer with their same lowball offer without any compromise, fine, they can lowball, and I'll stall.
One other thing I feel like I need to add here: Over the last few weeks this has become very personal. This process of selling my business interest to my business partners started off with good intentions, but with our expectations being so far apart, and having these difficulties in negotiating, I'm not sure I consider these guys to be "friends" any more, if we were friends before. I should say that I still get along with David just fine, but a few of the other partners that have been more vocal and unwilling to negotiate, I'm having a hard time thinking of them as friends, and I'll have a hard time rooting for them if I end up selling the company to them.
