Looking back at my early business ventures it was often me and a couple people sitting around, coming up with ideas and then saying "would'nt it be fun to go into business together?" Sounds fun working every day with your friends.
The problem is that friends are great as friends but they often make horrible business partners. Though there are many exceptions to this rule there is a high rate of failure among friends who become partners.
My best friend and I decided to create a business together. We were 50/50 partners and we started building the business. I did the sales and marketing and he was the product guy, though I also did some of the product work, which was consulting. Our business was booming. But there were issues. I would have clients call me and complain about him. He would have clients call him and complain about me. I was not selling fast enough. I wanted to go in one direction and he wanted to go another. Those little issues turned into big issues. One day he came in and said, "I'm moving across the country." Clearly it would not work if we were not together so I had to go or we would not be together. He had made up his mind. The business ended and so did the friedship. Though it recovered a decade later, it was never the close friendship we each had.
The romance of working with friends daily is simply stupid. It rarely works well. An idea between two friends is often not good reason. A better way to approch it is to say, "lets not end our friendship by becoming partners. Either you start it or I'll start it, but lets not do it together. It won't end well."
I'm sure I'll hear from all the successful partnerships who prove me wrong. There are great exceptions. But if you must do a partnership than one of you (preferably you) needs controlling interest so decisions can be made. Joint decisions often result in bad decisions. Sometimes you will have vision you need to persue and you can be blocked by your partner.
I've been tempted over the years. Some people I almost partnered with went on to giant success. Others giant failure. Its hard to know. But if you can put the friendship aside ask yourself if you would hire this person for the role they are playing, and would it be worth 50% of your earnings? Usually not.
If you want to take on a partner, before doing it, suggest you and your spouses go on a trip around the world together and see how well you agree on where to visit, where to eat, what to spend your time on. Do it for a month and you'll quickly find out that maybe its not such a great idea to go into business together. In reality, you spend more time with your partner in business than your spouse. You have to agree on every decision together, whether to put the money back into the company or take it out (lots of battles over money), and the right strategic decisions.
My advice. Hang with your friends but don't make them your business partners.
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