It’s considered a bad idea to start a business with a friend. Especially when we get to know about a bad experience like bouvier affaire. I tell you how not to stay without a friend and without business.
Developing a common idea
Partnership with friends is beneficial because the overall idea is a more effective motivator than money. The business growing on the basis of personal relationships is stronger than business, which is based only on the interests of partners separately – less underwater currents.
Doing business with a friend is good at the initial stage, when there is no profit, no employees and it is possible to share responsibilities with a person who is ready to work for the idea. And even better in a developed business: there is someone to rely on, less emotional burnout.
Yes, you can build an effective business model yourself, but it still depends on the money that employees receive.
Choose the main one
Someone in business has to be in charge. And the main one has to be determined on the beach, because it’s not just to obey the dude with whom you sat in the neighboring pots in kindergarten. Just like you’re in charge of him. The discomfort has to be overcome right away, or we shouldn’t start at all.
When discussing strategic issues, the vision of the situation may not coincide. Someone must make the final decision and the second one must agree with it, otherwise the work will turn into an endless stream of disputes.
Sharing responsibilities
When you have a small business, you have to do everything at once. The best option is if you have useful skills in your cofounders’ starting luggage. And it’s even better if they have different plans. I had competence in marketing and advertising, my partner had experience in managing and setting up business processes. According to them, we’ve allocated responsibilities and areas of responsibility.
Bullshit happens when one person gets into the other’s area of responsibility. If you get an urgent call and you can’t answer right now, the worst possible solution is “Max, are you in the office? Look, there’s an X coming up, I’ve got acts in my laptop in the Dock9348 folder, sign for me, it’s an emergency.”
Don’t look for a guilty one
Success is a common achievement, failure is also common. Even if there is a leader who is responsible for the result, or someone specific has screwed up. So, under-planned, misjudged, underestimated the risks. We have to fix the joints and take measures to prevent their recurrence.
At some point, because of the purely human factor, we screwed up with the supplier and lost a discount on the purchase. The product was paid for, but we couldn’t take it back when we agreed. And then we couldn’t do it again.
The culprit was, and it was possible to inflate the problem, but we talked and came to several conclusions:
- An argument will not eliminate the cause of the problem: we will not return the discount anyway.
- We got fed up not because the culprit stupidly scored at work, but because he was loaded with other cases. Some of them were not so important: some of them could be scored at all, and the rest could be postponed for later.
- The loss of the discount is trouble, but not critical. You can reestablish a relationship with the same vendor and return the discount, or you can focus on working with someone else.
In the end:
- Better planning, prioritizing.
- We found another supplier that was even more profitable in fact.
But that makes two of us. The more people, the harder it got.
Separating work and free time
Now that’s just a spliff! We sit in the office, discuss SMM-strategy, make content, and then find out that for half an hour we are just talking about cars. Friendship is one model of communication, business is quite different, and we must learn to switch between them.
To confuse work with personal affairs is another feature of national business. And in general, working relationships. It is one thing, when hired workers suffer, the method of whip and carrot decides. If the same swamp pulls business owners, it will end badly.