Guys, I'm the person who wants you!
So, first point: for about 2 years I have been part of a group of people who are creating a network of companies in the metalworking industry and therefore I know practically all the critical and "sofferent" points of putting together to do something that goes beyond the "botteguccia" of the house.
http://www.va.camcom.it/progetto_mech-net/888second point: whatever form you want to give to the acrocchio (consortium, network of enterprises, temporary hire of businesses, 4 friends at the bar... - then let's talk about it) one of the crucial steps, looking good in the balls of the eyes and above all speaking straight away, is to understand if this thing you want to do only to find the way to "wheel" of someone else better/structured/lucky, etc. or if instead there is a "vision" and a project.
in the first hypothesis better stop immediately and greet, as long as you can still stay friends.
in the second one must know that it will be like being enlisted in a same army, in which or you win together, or you die together.
third point: before deluding to go out on the street and stop the first general contractor of great orders that passes there, it is necessary to start to know others, I would say almost as if you were yourself, that is: how they work, as they reason, their times and operating methods and also, alas, their costs and margins of income.
Therefore, after the first informal evenings, in which he tells us the story of the wolf and other amenities, two essential steps must be made:
1) clear pacts, long friendship. that is cards on the table and reasonings made as much as possible "opensource".
Clearly that for the moment the peculiarities of each, like certain procedures or even the nomination of some customers, can well remain in the shadow, but from that day you must understand that in prospective your own personal bowl will become a little smaller and the rest of the food will come from the common bowl.
2) before "going out in open sea" it is appropriate to make a little undercoast navigation and above all on known seabeds. therefore better start working for each other, exchange of work perhaps already known and therefore reproducible without too much problems, or sharing "one to one" some phase of some small task.
In this way, first of all, the truthfulness of the information collected on the common table above, we get used to working in team, especially for those who now do the "one man show", and then we see also if the team work for the "internal system" can already bring some small advantage at cost and/or times and availability of technological equipment.
fourth point: the rules of the game and the legal form.
from the first meeting of the common table you must start thinking of giving yourself a minimum of rules, clear and shared. these will serve immediately to start working for each other and in perspective to put black on white the contractual form that will serve to formalize the group.
legal form: personally, for past experiences, I regret to form a consortium, not so much so that it does not go well to work together and acquire joint orders, as for the fact that it could become complicated to manage, especially in the presence of members distributed throughout the peninsula. For example, being the consortium a type of company based on quotas, at the time when a member enters or exits it would serve to start procedures, sale and quota prelation, or even increase of the capital, which concern all other members and which require bureaucratic fulfillments sometimes of a certain weight, as assemblies in the presence of a notary.
a form a little, but only a little, leaner is that of the cooperative, but there the risk is that if you give minimal goods to the society then, in case of dissolution, it is practically impossible to return in possession and then, with the latest reforms, in case you preview the redistribution of profits the load of taxes is practically equal to that of any srl, with the difference of having some not negligible administrative rigidities and all
It was for me that I would be on the network of companies, which has just been more precise and more responsive to the needs of small businesses and also professionals.
fifth point: if you decide to "molate the moorings", let yourself be helped by some "tremoners", expert in the path of conception, formation and convergence of participants towards the new entity.
otherwise look at that it is a moment to take the stubborn against the wall or fall into an open grave.
we with mech-net did so and I will never end up being happy with the choice made. also because it is from this path that then comes the leadership of the group, that you will have to take charge of carrying out the work as chief commit. and if you are mistaken the choice of the person/s then they are cabbages gone wrong.
sixth point: money and resources. everything has a price, especially building something that maybe at first does not bring back, or gives it in a very marginal way. then prepare to put on the table each his whistle of chips. Perhaps not necessarily in the form of tickets from 100 euros, but also and above all in terms of time to devote to the thing, knowing that necessarily not everything can be done in the evening or in the weekend, but that often it will be necessary to "stack" from your work to gather, discuss, go to talk to people, companies, etc..
and already that we are on the subject, look around, ask, consult category associations, chambers of commerce, regional branches, that there are around a little money available to those who want to try to put on a network or something that resembles us.
Okay, these "tips" and the "warnings" I generously gave you.
do what you want, but do something about it.
essential and centered. and also good answers.