Would you ever go to business together with your friends?

No, I wouldn't go into business with a friend. I think that over time, it would create too many problems. I will also not hire a friend to work for me for the same reason. I value my friendships, and I also value my business. If I want to succeed in business, I have to keep both aspects of my life separate.

i have been into business with my friends which landed me into a loss of more than Rs.100,000/- this happened at a time when i was barely earning rs.60,000/- a year. i paid up my loss of rs.100,000/- and walked out of the business so that i can retain the friendship. i dont regret that decision. but i learned my lesson, so i never went into business with friends. also i dont get into a business that i do not understand or able to run on my own.

Before reading your post, I was thinking it would be just fine to operate a small store or something with one of my friend. Now I have to reconsider it. Honestly, I won't risk my friendship for that damn business. I am sure I can earn money in other ways and friends are precious to me.

Business is business. Friendship is friendship. The two are not mutually exclusive, but can be 99% of the time. People are lulled into a sense of unearned trust with friends and family. The only 1% of the time I would even consider such an arrangement would be if the person was religous, had an excellent credit record and you know he/she pays people back they owe money to, and was already a successful businessman with a good track record. Then and only then would I even consider going into business with a friend.

hi laydee, I would if i ever go in business then try to go alone without a partner. This way it would give me complete control over my business but if i am short of money then i might need to have a partner. Now the choice is a friend or totally unknown person and how close we are friends. if we are very close then i dont think it would be much of a problem even if the business goes bust but with complete stranger i would always be feeling suspicious as i dont have a business back ground and since many business man are cheats in India so you just can not be too careful with unknown persons. So i would rather go to business with my best friend and anyways my best friend has literally ordered me to be part of business he is going to start so it looks i would be a partner though sleeping one.

If you are truely friends you know each other well enough to know if you can work together but working together and running a business together are two very different things and shouldn't be confused. I would never go into business with a friend because at the end of the day you want to be able to turn to your friends and if they are the one who has upset you at work where do you turn? Its true money can and does ruin friendships. I believe if you truely care about your friends you wont but it under that strain.

that really depends on the friend... if i really trust the person and i know him/her really well, then may be i will... but i will set the grounds straight first from the beginning and everything has to be written in black and white... friendship and business relationship which involves professionalism have to be differentiated very clearly when it comes to business... take care and have a nice day...

No, I would never do business together with a friend…it would just not work. One friend would think this is better and the other wont and then they cant be open to each other coz they don’t want to hurt each other but the business flops in the process. One of my married friends wanted to do direct selling with me and I refused and she has stopped talking to me since.

it is very risky , to me , its all about buisness , and then once the buisness is done for the day , THEN we can become back to the friends you understand , buisness , has NO relationship , its all about making money and i cant see anyone , messing up just because theyre childhood friends or something to that nature , its buisness, get it together , come to an understanding so we both can help ourselves to make more money , and then once we do that , we can lavish off our wealth

I think that's case to case basis. Me and my friends have been through a lot so i don't think any business would ruin our friendship. Besides, we have the same passion for something so i don't think it would create a lot of complications. I think when starting a business with a friend, i guess we should clear first some rules, you know like business is business. We should play by the book to make the business work out. Being open to suggestions is a must of course.

i had done that and i regretted it. not that we fought because of the business. i regretted it because, i did most of the work, i spent more on money, i spent more of my time. and the other one sort of like waited for the profit to arrive. well she did help, but it was not worth it... it was really not fair. and i regretted it a lot. and many people were telling me that. and we shared the profit 50-50. it would've been better if i had it all by myself since it looks like it anyway, i could've gotten all the profit to myself. i was just glad and relieved that it was over and that experience made me realize i can never really trust someone to be fair in my business even if they are my partner.

A business with friends is good but not to the intention of that big cash flows. It will be a business maintained for us to be together the way back when we are younger. May it be a business that would share our hobbies before which is good though not into competition as well but as a partnership in case..

Definetly not, i would not want to risk my years old friendship for a Business. Friendship is better for Business than business is for friendship. Although the base of friendship is trust you cannot expect the same in business. Working with friends is always comfortable as it gives you a lot more ideas, support and confidence that will always be difficult for you to get from a person you are not farmiliar with but such a scenario sometime tends to promote unrelistic expectations and hurtful miscommunications giving oppertunities for you and your friend to get your signals crossed. Always remember the stakes are higher when you do business with a good friend.

No, I wouldn't go to business with a friend because I value my friendships and I also would like to be succesful in the business that I am opening. I think that as much as I want a close friend of mine to help me out with the business I think that either the friendship or the business would go sour. In a business venture it is always a good idea to know the person but have it not necessarily be a friend.

My best friend works with me doing incense bottles. It's not really a business but just something we do on the side for extra cash. I can see how these arrangements could definitely become a problem on a larger scale. everything either of us does reflects on both of us. I won't let it ruin our friendship. We've been friends for 40 years now. I would never let something like this come between us.

Never. You can always borrow stuff or have a friendly loan given to each other. But when you include terms like profit and loss, It all goes to hell.

[b][/b]Based on experience, not actually mine, it's better to put up a business by yourself, no partners whether a friend or relatives, for whatever might happen whether it succeed or fail, nobody will be blame but yourself if it fail and you can get all the credit if it succeed. Many friendships have fallen out because of this scenario, and relationships among families become sour, of the same reason, so if you can do it alone, do it.

I belief that money destroys relationship. Be it friendship or any other relationship. I will never start a venture with my friend. I know if I start something like that the I will end up with loosing my friendship. It is always better to have own business because then there will be no one responsible of profit or loss except me. If I start a business with my friend then he will think he will loosing money for my decision and I will also think the same way when there will be a loss.

I've actually talked to my closest friends about starting a business together and I think I would. My closest friends and I have been through a lot of crap together and we've never let anything get in the way of our friendship. I've known them a long time and we know each other the best we can... I would take the chance and do business with my friends. I trust my friends, my friends trust me.. why not, lol

Friendships are really valuable, priceless... I wouldnt risk ruining a friendship by partnering with my friends in business... True, you may be very close friends and all that, but when it comes to sharing responsibilities, finances, growing in your career, there is a great possibility of ego clashes, differences of opinion or fights over trivial matters which could ruin/spoil your friendship. Like I wouldnt like to order a friend - you gotta do this, you gotta do that. I wouldnt like to say - your share of the profit is only so-and-so coz you worked for only so-and-so hours. Best option is to keep both the aspects separate and keep all relations healthy and intact.