There are many risks, perhaps more than positive reasons, to hiring a friend or acquaintances for your business. However, there may be a case or reason, where you find yourself in such a situation and you have to prepare for it. Do you know what to do? What actions can you take in order to avoid possible risks? The Open Forum website has offered five steps that you should take before you welcome someone close to you into your team.
1. No fifty fifty partnership
At least not at first because you may face disastrous consequences. According to Mike Michalowicz, CEO of Provendus Group, it is much better to set conditions in which everyone receives a 10 % ownership share initially. Then later evaluate the worth according to individual contributions to the business. Be sure to evaluate with established metrics, quarterly, works well.
2. Professional and personal issues remain separate
Equality between friends cannot be applied to business. It is complicated enough if you decide to add a friend to your team. Determine the objective conditions at the beginning and define boundaries, including competence and evaluation. Friendship must be set aside in business.
3. Expectations must be completely clear
Everything works fine until something goes wrong. You cannot change your way of working together on the fly (at least not the primary one). So, the key requirement for a successful working relationship is to outline your expectations and consequences in advance. It is a much easier than having to face an unpleasant conversation about unacceptable job performance later.
4. Be prepared for strong emotions
Since you share the same social space with your friend, you need to be prepared for feelings of a stronger mutual competitive pressures than with the rest of your employees. Again, it is important to have planned in advance what to tell your new partner if the situation becomes tense. This will help protect your business and reputation before it becomes too late.
5. Friendship or partnership?
The last but crucial step is to be positive the whole thing is worth the potential loss of friendship. If you are not willing to risk this, then you should not form the partnership. You will not likely be able to follow the previous steps.
Can this work either in the short or long term? If you balance the scales of your friendship versus business, which side is outbalanced? Tell us about your experiences and opinions.
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