Should I start a business with friends?

Competent business management is the basis of its success. But when we start a project there are so many things we don’t understand that it’s not hard to slip up. One of the most common mistakes entrepreneurs make is to hire relatives or friends. Why is it a mistake?

Surrounding ourselves with like-minded people is inherent in our nature, we can rely on each other and those close to us in life are good like-minded people in work as well. Friends are committed to our cause, they think and act like us, we know what we can expect from them, and when you look in the same direction with someone… A shared vision of the future often leads to great results in both personal and professional life.

The fact that less pay can be negotiated with them is not to be underestimated, at least in the beginning, when everything is “in the balance” and every penny has to be counted. All of this seems like enough to pick the team from among the people closest to us, but as in many other cases, the calculations do not always turn out to be correct because the subjective factor is missing from the equation.

Even with a successful start, relationships can deteriorate, sometimes so sharply that we are back to square one and regretting the choice of employees. It happens – people change over time. And the best families sometimes divorce, leaving a business that involves money, ambition, favoritism and rivalry.

There is another danger: to create a closed community in which there is no diversity of thought and fresh ideas do not penetrate. In this community, everyone is a leader and competes for power and whose decision is better. Experience shows that successful teams are composed of people with different views, there is a need for both analytically thinking and intuitive individuals. When we select people for different positions, we should not be guided by the same criteria. When there are disputes and disagreements, innovative solutions emerge.