Forms for Partnership or Affiliate Applications

A partner who wants the opposite exit shows up after the calendar is full. The mismatch was there at the start. A partnership application form puts that conflict on the page before you book the time.

This guide is general education. It is not legal advice and it is not a size determination. A form does not create a company and it does not win a federal contract.

Name the deal before you build the form

People use one word for three jobs. The form fails when it mixes them.

A strategic alliance. SCORE’s 2019 article defines a strategic partnership as an agreement between two companies to work together in ways that help both. It can be co-marketing. It can be a license to use another company’s technology. SCORE says this is not a fix for a messy business. Finances and people and systems need to be in working order first. A partnership will surface those problems.

A co-owner. The SBA says a partnership is the simplest structure for two or more people to own a business together. SCORE’s 12 March 2025 article is about that kind of partner. You split profits and you split control. You answer to someone else.

A federal joint venture. The SBA says two or more small businesses may pool their efforts to compete for a contract. A mentor and a protégé may do this when the protégé qualifies as small. That path has a written agreement and a SAM.gov record and work-share rules. It is not a referral program.

Pick one path on the first question. Cognito Forms says conditional logic can show follow-up questions to the applicants they fit. A co-owner should not have to answer a mentor-protégé block. A promoter should not have to list a capital contribution.

What an application form is for

Cognito Forms says an application collects the facts you need to decide who gets a role or a place or funding. Every applicant sees the same format so you can compare them. The page says clubs and event organizers use these forms to vet members and vendors and sponsors. Cognito’s brand-ambassador template collects applications from people who want to represent your brand and promote your products or services.

If someone can join with no review, Cognito says a sign-up form is the better fit. An event seat can be a sign-up. A partner is a review. Use an application.

Cognito’s application page says most forms include contact information and eligibility and relevant history and supporting documents and references. End with a certification and a signature that the information is accurate. Add consent if you plan to run a background check. A file upload can hold a portfolio or an ID. A repeating section lets someone add more than one past role or reference.

Cognito says to require key fields so you do not have to chase a phone number or a signature. Submit a test entry. Check the required fields and the notices. Then share a link or place the form on your site.

Questions for a collaborator or an affiliate

A strategic partnership form starts from SCORE’s 2019 goals. Name what you want before you ask anyone else. SCORE’s examples include a regional seller who wants a national sales team. They include a restaurant that wants delivery. They include a firm that wants a new method or a new skill. Ask the applicant which of those jobs they can do. Ask what they want in return.

SCORE says to look for shared values, not a capability list. The example is a business built on social responsibility. It should pair with a firm that shares that commitment. Ask the applicant to name the values they will not drop.

Due diligence stays with you. SCORE says to read the company’s reputation online and on social media and among other businesspeople. Ask how strong the brand is. Contact firms they have worked with and ask what the work was like. The form can collect those past-partner names and a yes to contact them. Cognito lists references as a standard part of an application. The form does not make the calls.

SCORE says to learn the other company’s current situation and future plans and long-term goals before you pitch. A collaboration application form can ask those three in the applicant’s words. The relationship happens in conversation. It does not happen on the form. SCORE says to build that relationship before you propose the deal.

Ask how the deal helps them. SCORE says the proposal should lead with their benefit. Your gain is real. It is not the line they care about most.

The written deal comes after a yes. SCORE says to put it in writing no matter how well you know the contact. The contact may leave. The article says the agreement can cover the assets and resources each company provides. It can cover how each firm is paid. It can cover who is responsible for what and how you will measure success. Hold meetings after you sign. SCORE says you cannot sign and walk away.

An affiliate application form is the promoter version of that ask. Cognito’s ambassador template is for people who will represent the brand and promote the offer. Ask who they are. Ask how they would represent the brand and promote the offer. Ask for a page or a file that shows the audience. Cognito lists a portfolio upload as a supporting document. None of these sources publish a commission schedule. Put pay in the written deal. Do not invent a rate on the form.

Use an affiliate recruitment form when you are inviting promoters, and an affiliate partner form when you want one record per promoter. Both are reviews. Both stop at the facts you will use to say yes or no. SCORE’s alliance article does not describe a commission program. SBA’s pages in this guide do not either. State that limit on the form so a promoter does not think they are becoming an owner.

Questions for a co-owner

SCORE’s 12 March 2025 article says two or more people can bring more knowledge and experience than one person. It lists more funds and a deeper network and more potential customers as further gains. The cost is shared profit and shared decisions and joint liability that depends on the structure. A friendship or a marriage or a family tie can break if you get the partner wrong.

A business partnership form should show whether the skills fit. SCORE says to avoid a copy of yourself. If both people are strong at sales, ask who handles the rest of the work. SCORE says an introvert does better with an extrovert than with another quiet person. A person who is weak on detail does better with a detail-minded person. The aim is a balanced whole.

Ask about values and the end state before you write a plan. SCORE says to confirm shared dreams and goals and vision, and a shared view of full-time work. One person who wants a company to hand to their children and another who wants a fast sale is the mismatch the article warns about.

If you do not know them well, SCORE says to talk to former co-workers when you can. Read their social profiles. Search their name. Ask people in your industry. A credit check is a good idea in that article. Invite them to check your credit in return. Cognito says to collect consent before a background check. Put that consent on the form. Do not run the check from the form itself. These sources do not describe a form that pulls a credit file.

Then the terms a lawyer will need.

• Money. Ask who puts in cash and who puts in work. SCORE says a larger cash contribution does not by itself mean a larger share. Sweat equity can change the split. Ask whether earnings are equal or defined another way.
• Decisions. Ask whether one person has the final say or you will use co-CEOs. Ask who runs the work day to day. Ask who can sign a check or a contract. Ask where employees go for an answer. Ask whether a mediator handles a deadlock.
• Growth. Ask whether the agreement can change and whether a new partner can join.
• Exit. Ask what happens if someone dies or retires or leaves. A 2011 SCORE article from Pittsburgh says a buy-sell can require the departing owner to offer the interest to the other owners first and then to the company before a sale to a stranger. SCORE’s 2025 article says to plan the divorce case when spouses own the company together. An attorney should draw the agreement. The form stores the answers the attorney will use.

SBA’s choose-a-structure page is the liability half of this conversation. A limited partnership has one general partner with unlimited liability. The other partners have limited liability and tend to have limited control. That control limit belongs in the partnership agreement. Profits pass through to personal returns. The general partner must pay self-employment tax. A limited liability partnership gives limited liability to every owner. An LLP protects each partner from debts of the partnership. Partners are not responsible for the actions of the other partners. SBA says ownership rules and taxes and filings vary by state. Its comparison table is a guideline. Confirm the choice with a tax specialist.

SBA says a limited partnership agreement binds the partners and defines decisions and duties and powers. SBA describes that agreement as worth creating even when the state does not require it. The same idea applies to a limited liability partnership agreement. A certificate of limited liability partnership tells the state the partnership exists. Not every state requires it. Some states use another name.

SCORE says you can organize as a general partnership or a limited partnership or a limited liability partnership, or as a C corporation or an S corporation. Talk to an attorney or another advisor. Talk to an accountant. The article says many experts recommend incorporating so partners are protected from company debts. That is SCORE’s report of expert advice. It is not a rule that every pair must incorporate. SBA says an LLC protects personal assets in most cases when the LLC faces bankruptcy or a lawsuit. The examples include a vehicle and a house and savings. SBA says a corporation offers stronger owner protection and costs more to form. It demands more records. Pick with the advisors. Do not let the form pick the entity.

Questions for a federal joint venture

Use a joint venture form when the goal is a government contract set aside for small businesses. Skip it for a co-marketing deal.

The SBA Mentor-Protégé program is not a matchmaking service. A protégé applies with a mentor they have named. Both firms register in SAM.gov. Both complete SBA’s online tutorial. They sign a Mentor-Protégé Agreement. The protégé applies in Certify with its Unique Entity Identifier. SBA says screening is 15 days and processing is 90 days. That is 105 days if the application is not withdrawn.

A protégé must be small and must have industry experience. It must be organized for profit or as an agricultural cooperative. Use SBA’s Size Standards Tool or the size table for the NAICS code. A mentor must be organized for profit or as an agricultural cooperative. It must be able to help. It must have good character. It must not appear on the federal list of debarred or suspended contractors. It must be able to pass on useful experience.

SBA will look at whether the help creates real development for the protégé. A deal that exists to collect set-asides does not qualify. The firms may not be affiliates of each other at the time of application. On this page an affiliate is about control. One party can control the other. A third party can control both. Control counts even when nobody uses it. SBA looks at ownership and management and prior ties and contracts. It can find affiliation from the whole picture when no single fact is enough. That test is in 13 CFR 121.103. Do not use it to screen a promoter. A commission partner is a different word.

Help a mentor can offer includes guidance on management systems and accounting and marketing. It can include equity or a loan or bonding. It can include bidding help and trade education and shared staff or security-clearance support.

The joint venture agreement must be in writing and must follow SBA rules. The venture needs its own name. It needs a Unique Entity Identifier and a CAGE code in SAM.gov. In SAM the entity type is a joint venture. The partners are the immediate owners. If they want an exclusion from affiliation, SBA must approve the mentor-protégé agreement before they submit an offer as a joint venture. The protégé sends a joint-venture compliance certificate to SBA and to the contracting officer. SBA no longer approves joint-venture agreements for competitive 8(a) contracts. SBA continues to review agreements for sole-source 8(a) contracts.

The protégé must perform at least 40 percent of the work the joint venture does. SBA then says that when the joint venture and the protégé meet the minimum work shares, the protégé performs 20 percent of the contract. For the protégé’s size, SBA says 40 percent of the contract revenue counts to the protégé. Those two figures answer different questions. Do not average them. The rules sit in 13 CFR 125.8 and 13 CFR 125.9.

SBA caps what the joint venture may pay firms it does not treat as situated the same way. The cap is 50 percent of the government payment on a service contract. The cap is 50 percent on supplies. The cap is 85 percent on construction. The cap is 75 percent on a special trade. Read the joint-venture page before you treat a cap as the full rule. This article does not restate every exception.

A Mentor-Protégé Agreement may last up to six years from SBA approval. A protégé may have two mentors at the same time when the relationships do not conflict. A protégé can have no more than two mentors over the life of the business. The relationship has to last at least one year after approval. Annual evaluations are required.

The form can collect size and NAICS and SAM status and debarment status and the help the mentor will give. The agreement and the SAM record and the Certify application are separate. A form on your site does not submit them.

A partner application questionnaire you can send

1. Ask which path they want. The choices are an alliance or a co-owner or a federal joint venture.
2. Collect the name and the email. Add a phone number when you will call.
3. Ask what they want and what they bring. Use SCORE’s goal list as the prompt.
4. Ask for values and for the end they want. For a co-owner, ask whether the aim is a long-lived company or a sale.
5. Ask for the skill that covers a gap you have. SCORE’s sales example belongs here.
6. Ask for past partners or references in a repeating block. Ask for permission to contact them.
7. Ask for proof. A link or a file. Cognito’s portfolio upload is the pattern.
8. For a co-owner, ask about cash and work and who signs and who decides and what happens on an exit.
9. For a federal joint venture ask for the UEI if they have one. Ask for the NAICS. Ask whether the mentor is debarred or suspended.
10. End with a certification and a signature. Add background-check consent when you will use a check.

That list is the questionnaire. It is a partner screening form when you use the answers to accept or decline. Drop any line that will not change the decision. Cognito’s purpose statement is the test. If the answer does not help you decide, cut the question.

You can host the questions in Jotform. The reputation calls and the lawyer and the SAM filing stay with you.

Pitfalls

You run one form for every kind of partner. A promoter gets capital questions. A co-owner gets a CAGE-code question. Cognito’s branching exists so each person sees the block that fits.

You treat a finished form as due diligence. SCORE’s 2019 article says to contact past partners and to read the public record. The names on the form are the start of that work.

You skip the writing because they are family. SCORE’s 2025 article says a formal agreement is a must even then. A 2011 Pittsburgh SCORE article says a lawyer should prepare the co-owner agreement because of its complexity.

You let the applicant pick Approve. The decision is yours after the calls. Cognito describes tracking that decision on your side.

You use SBA’s affiliate test on a promoter. That test is about control for federal contracting. A marketing promoter is outside it.

You publish a commission on the form that no source in this guide sets. Pay belongs in the written deal SCORE describes.

You blend the 40 percent work rule with the 20 percent contract line. SBA states both. They answer different questions.

You think the form files the joint venture. SAM.gov and Certify and the written agreement are separate steps. SBA’s clock can run 105 days.

Trade-offs

One branched form versus three short forms. Cognito says follow-up questions can appear for the people they fit. One form keeps every applicant in one list. Three forms are easier to read if branching is hard to test. Submit a test on each path either way.

A short promoter form versus a long co-owner form. Cognito says the form should collect what you need to decide. An alliance can stop at goals and values and proof and references. A co-owner needs money and authority and an exit because SCORE says those terms belong in the agreement. Do not make the promoter answer the exit block.

A credit check versus a public-reputation check. SCORE’s 2025 article suggests a credit check for a co-owner you do not know well. Get consent. Invite a check of your file in return. SCORE’s 2019 article uses the public record and past partners for an alliance. Match the check to the deal.

Speed versus a federal timeline. An alliance can move at the pace of your calls. An SBA Mentor-Protégé application is 15 days of screening plus 90 days of processing when it is not withdrawn. Do not promise a promoter that clock. Do not promise a protégé a shorter clock.

What you do next

Write one sentence on the outcome you want. SCORE’s 2019 article says that sentence decides whom you approach. Build the path question and the shared block. Add the co-owner block or the federal block if you need it. Send a test to yourself. Then take one real applicant through the public record and a reference call before you book a long meeting.

If you want those questions in one place, Jotform can hold them. You decide who is a fit. A lawyer writes any ownership agreement. SBA’s own systems take any federal joint-venture filing.