By Eric P. Rothenberg, Esq. Partnerships and joint ventures share many similarities. However, there are significant differences business owners should be aware of when allying with another enterprise. Both are forms of legal structures used by business owners to combine resources, talents, or skills with another person or business. Business owners often mistakenly use the terms partnerships and joint ventures interchangeably. A partnership can be described as a voluntary association of two or more people who jointly own and carry on a business for profit, such as law firm partners who work together to provide legal services for gain. A joint venture, on the other hand, is typically a business undertaking by two or more people engaged in a single defined project. An expressed or implied agreement, a common purpose that the group intends to carry out, shared profits and losses, and each member’s equal voice in controlling the project