A lot of business owners start out with friends as partners or co-founders, which makes a lot of sense. After all, a lot of work goes into building a business and a friendship can form out of shared values and common interests. In addition, working with someone you know and like can make the experience much more enjoyable. However, if the decision to start a business with a friend is made without considering all of the potential issues that may arise, it can lead to disappointment and failure.
Some buddy-built businesses thrive and we’ve heard all about the success stories of Ben & Jerry, Hewlett-Packard, and Starbucks, but these successes are a rarity. More often than not, such ventures end in flattened egos and blistering resentments.
If you’ve been friends with someone for years before making them a business partner, you have a deep awareness of their personality and what motivates them. This can help you establish ground rules and set expectations regarding their performance as a business partner. You’ll also have easy communication, which is important in a business setting where clarity and decisiveness are critical. This can be especially useful in identifying and solving problems that you might otherwise miss when you’re dealing with a new, unfamiliar business partner.
Similarly, if you’ve worked with your friend in the past as a colleague, you have a good idea of what they’re capable of and how they’ll perform as a professional. This can help you determine if they’ll be the best person to handle bookkeeping or recordkeeping duties for your company, or if someone else in the company would be more qualified to do this job.
In a business partnership, there is always the chance that one of the partners will become overbearing or bossy in their handling of business affairs. The nature of your relationship might blind you from recognizing this, and before long, both you and the other partner will feel frustrated that certain aspects of the business are being neglected while others are being overdone.
If your friend is a morning person and you’re a night owl, it’s important to discuss the schedule ahead of time so that everyone can be happy with the arrangement. A lack of a clear agreement on this issue could eventually strain the friendship as well as create tension in the business.
If you’re both a morning person, this problem might not come up. But in a situation where both of you are working on projects that require you to meet with customers or clients during the day, it might not be as easy to agree on a schedule that suits all of you. This can create stress in the business and might prevent it from reaching its full potential. This could be a huge setback to your business, as it could result in missing opportunities and compromising customer loyalty. If you’re working on projects that require collaboration, it might be a better idea to consider hiring employees who are more accommodating to your schedule.