Mixing business with friends can be challenging, especially if there are no clear rules and no separation between business and personal relationships. Doing business with friends trust and honesty are very important in any business and relationship, including with friends. However, it is not always easy to maintain trust and honesty among friends in different business situations. Therefore, it is very important to have clear rules and understand each other's roles and responsibilities in business. it is also important to keep business relationships and friendships separate at work and not let personal conflicts influence business decisions.
Many years ago, I heard the story of a man whose business partner did dirty. They were business partners for almost 5 years and the suddenly the business partner left with company's money. Even after several years, this man didn't recovered. He ended up sounding it as a warning to his kids never to go into business with anyone. The trust was destroyed and never recovered. This is just one of those sad stories.
On the other hand, there are many success stories of friends who went into business together and succeeded to together. If you have ever gone into business with a friend, what were your biggest concerns and how did work through it.
There are still many good people in this world and many success stories in doing business with friends, by setting clear rules and maintaining a clear separation between business and personal relationships, combining business with friends can be successful.
To overcome this there are some basic rules that might help are:
1. Define clear roles and responsibilities.
2. Set clear and measurable targets and business goals.
3. Develop a clear and structured business plan.
4. Schedule regular meetings.
5. Avoid bringing personal matters into the workplace and vice versa, do not bring business matters into personal relationships.
6. Establish rules for making important decisions together.
7. Ensure that all decisions made are based on business interests, not personal interests.
By keeping business and personal relationships separate and setting clear rules, combining business with friends can be successful and even an opportunity to strengthen relationships and achieve common goals. However, if there is a dispute or problem in business, it is important to resolve the matter in a professional manner and not affect existing personal relationships.