Guest Post
Don’t Just Love Them, Like Them
We all have best friends or family members that we love to the moon and back, but know we could never work with. Just loving someone, being from the same bloodline or best friend, is not a good enough reason to work together. Your perfect PIB is someone you not only love, but also really, really like. They are the person who inspires you, pushes you and challenges you in constructive ways.
Find The Yin To Your Yang
Super successful duos all have one thing in common: they complement one another. Where one partner is weak, the other is strong. Where one partner lacks classical training, the other is an expert. It is this yin and yang relationship that makes for the ideal partnership in the workplace. Your co-founder should be able to alleviate your stress by stepping in on tasks that do not play to your strengths and you should be able to do the same for them. When selecting a co-founder you should be aiming to find an equal partnership where both parties feel supported and utilized.
If you are going to help each other make it to the finish line, you have to make sure that both of your finish lines are at the same place.
Compatibility
Much like trying to find the man (or woman) of your dreams, your co-founder and you need to be compatible. We are not talking that you both have to like long walks on the beach and albacore sashimi, but rather you both have compatible work ethics. You and your partner should both view business similarly, work the same hours, take the same things seriously, and ultimately have the same driving force. Nothing spells doom faster in a working relationship, then one party feeling like they carry all the weight. If you and your co-founder both work similarly, you will find there is less friction in your partnership.
Same Big Picture
You and your co-founder need to have the same end goal in mind. If you are going to help each other make it to the finish line, you have to make sure that both of your finish lines are at the same place. Do you plan to sell? Take on investors? Go public one day? Franchise the business? These are all questions that need answers up front. Having slightly different small pictures and personal goals along the way are completely fine and are to be expected in any partnership. It is the big picture of what you both want to grow the business into what it needs to be decided and agreed upon from day one.
Setting Boundaries with Your Co-Founder
Now that you have chosen your perfect co-founder, what if they happen to also be a good friend? This happens a lot and can unravel without you even knowing what happened. In running a small business with a friend and, now partner, things are going to get stressful, hectic and downright overwhelming. Therefore, you must set some boundaries early for a successful small business partnership. Keep these tips in mind to keep things moving to the end goal of the business:
Communication: Friends v. Business Partners
Chances are, you wouldn’t chat with your company’s CEO in the same way that you would with your lifelong best friend. That’s a good thing – it’s a major part of maintaining a respectful workplace environment! It’s important to establish a distinction between how you expect interactions to go both inside and outside the office. While it’s perfectly okay (and encouraged) to be friendly, you don’t want to treat your work BFF much differently than any other coworker. Save the heart-to-hearts for after hours.
Eliminate Favoritism
As you start to grow the small business, your loyalties stay with the company. That’s an unspoken agreement you must make when you decided to grow the business beyond just the two of you (and a major component of professionalism). It’s easy to hand every opportunity over to your best friend, but that practice is bound to cause unnecessary tension in the office with your employees. It’s hard to succeed as a team when the company seems divided by cliques!
Honesty Is The Best Policy
Communication is a critical aspect of any relationship, but this particularly holds true when you’re playing the roles of friend and colleague. Maintaining open communication is critical in effectively managing both relationships – if any concerns arise, voice them! Bottling up your feelings can be especially dangerous when your career and your relationships are at risk.
Above all, always remember that business is business! The roles you play in a friendship and in a work relationship can be at odds, but it’s up to you to keep the two separate. Maintaining an open mindset and being willing to communicate are the only ways to make it work, but if you’re willing to take those steps, the outcome can be extremely rewarding!
About the authors
About Lorena: Lorena has a MBA in finance and has always been an entrepreneur at heart. Lorena is the co-founder of two successful companies: Bloguettes and Estoes Purpura, a popular women’s fashion and news site in Mexico. For more info https://bloguettes.com/
About Sakura: Sakura is a graphic designerwho fell in love with the blogging and marketing world when she was attending Arizona State University majoring in Business Marketing and Japanese. Sakura is also the co-founder of Bloguettes, The Sorority Secrets and manages her own design and lifestyle blog, Something Sakura. For more info https://bloguettes.com/