Working with your best mate can often seem like a dream come true – until reality bites. It’s often said there’s no quicker way to fall out with a friend than to start working with them or going into business with them.
So here are 7 easy-to-follow tips to ensuring your friendship and your business survive when you and a chum become partners.
Start with formal arrangements. A handshake is all very well but no-one will recall that when you start bickering over whose idea it was from the off. Bring in professionals to draw up proper, binding agreements that work out how to divide assets, etc if the worst happens.
Know who’s doing what from the start. Be clear on who does what and when. Divide up the responsibilities and be clear about lines of communication.
On that note, stick to your strengths. Each of you will bring different abilities and skills to the business and while it’s reasonable to make suggestions, be careful not to step on each other’s toes.
Separate work from social life. Leave the job in the office when you’re socialising or with your families. There’s a reason you’re friends in the first place – don’t lose sight of that.
Agree from the start on leave but be ready to be flexible. Many partnerships start when you are younger and responsibility free but family life is likely soon to interfere. Parental leave when babies are born shouldn’t be a matter of resentment so set the ground rules and apply them fairly and equally
Be frank about your goals from the off. Each of you will have different ambitions for the business and perhaps quite different ideas about how to achieve those ambitions. So talk to each other about how each of you gets what you want from your work together.
Don’t sweat the small stuff. So she is always 20 minutes late for meetings. Or he has a horrible habit of eating at his desk. So long as he or she is pulling his or her weight and putting the company first, all this little irritating habits are just that – an irritation.
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