Thread: Employees and Friends

As I begin my second entrepreneurial endeavor (age 21), I begin to see the shadow of my friends following me around. I've been looking for web designers, app. developers and people that are overall reliable in business aspects; the problem is my friends want "in." At this point im having the inner monologue over the emotional ROI of hiring a person I know over a (possibly) better qualified outside source. Many people say "If I find a way to get rich im bringing all my friends with me" but what if in reality those friends you try to bring with you are more of a friend than an employee? Sadly I have been seeing some of my friends as more of a burden than an asset lately. My questions to the great business minds of L4P are; Where do you draw the line between Employees and Friends? / Where do you draw the line of friendship and business?

Exercise caution when doing business with friends.

I do not mix friends and business. It's rare the two work together for long periods of time.

One businessman advised me: If you can hire your best friend in the world, fire them at a moment's notice and deal with never seeing that person again in your life, they might work as an employee. Every friend you hire will be your enemy one day. Friends don't last forever and neither do employees.

When i was 15 i starting a pressure washing business and for 15 I was ballin'. My friends started wanting jobs so I starting hiring them, but they couldn't stand the hard work and usually ended up in the truck texting and me doing 80% of the work.

Lesson learned

as said, be very cautious. make it very clear to them that you're going to running a business, not the UN, and that friend or not, employees have to do their share of work.

I agree with Tubby, mixing friends and business is a big no no. It makes things so much more difficult professionally. Hypothetically if one of your friends were to do something wrong it just makes it harder to try to correct them because of your friendship and background together. You want to say something because it's better for the business but you're hesitant and not sure how to approach them about it because you don't want to offend them nor make them angry at you, whereas if it were just some other person you hired you can tell your piece of mind without a second thought.

My father opened up a factory in Vietnam a number of years ago and there were a few partners involved. Seeing this good opportunity my father's friend wanted in, and my father allowed him. Long story short, when things came down to profit and money their friendship crumbled and things were never the same between them. They're still partners but they don't do anything aside from things strictly business and there is still tension between them. 20+ years of friendship down the drain because of one venture of mixing business and friendship.

You know why they wan't in? BECAUSE THEY'RE LAZY FVCKS WHO WANT TO FREE ROLE OFF OF YOU.

DO NOT EVER involve them in your business. Once my app and company took off EVERYONE was on my ass about doing something with them "Tell me when you have a good idea I want in" WHY THE FVCK would I come up with a great idea and just GIVE it to you and still execute it myself?

Business partners can become friends. Friends don't become business partners.

At our age (I'm 20) all these young stupid fcks just want to be rich but don't want to work for it. They don't deserve it. They see MTV and want to be like that. They see you'll be successful so they want on.

"The superior man is absent of sentiment and emotion"

It's business. No emotion. Leave your unqualified, wannabe, freeroling friends out of your business. Plain and simple. Watch what happens when you become rich alone, and how your "friends" change because they're jealous of you. It'll happen. Happened to me, and I'm glad I didn't bring those "friends" with me.

Many people say "If I find a way to get rich im bringing all my friends with me"

That's bull shit. They're basically saying make me rich so you won't be rich alone. DUMB FVCKING excuse to not do anything themselves.

Seriously if you hire your friends you deserve to be banned

My sister asked if she could be on my board for my new business and i was like "No your'e not qualified" n she said "Why not?" and I said "You have no financial expertise analyzing valuations or business plans."

I'll put her on payroll for a couple hundred a week, but I won't put her in a position if she's not qualified. And that's my sister.

If you're soo weak to give into having friends who are liabilities apart of your company...You're doomed buddy.

I actually just kicked my friend out of our business venture bc he was a liability not an asset. And now it'll be tougher to do it alone, but it's better than having a burden over my head.

Wow, I was expecting a debate here, but to me its more one sided than I imagined. I was already leaning towards excusing my friends from any business endeavor before this but this thread reaffirms every speculation I had in the first place. Luckily I will be at the University of Illinois for the next year or two so there is a large pool of talent I could hire from and most importantly be seen as employees instead of friends.

As much as I would love to have a business full of close friends and people that I have known for a while, its not worth the apparent liability and loss in productivity that would end up destroying my business in the first place.

Originally Posted by Porsche996GT2

You know why they wan't in? BECAUSE THEY'RE LAZY FVCKS WHO WANT TO FREE ROLE OFF OF YOU.

DO NOT EVER involve them in your business. Once my app and company took off EVERYONE was on my ass about doing something with them "Tell me when you have a good idea I want in" WHY THE FVCK would I come up with a great idea and just GIVE it to you and still execute it myself?

Business partners can become friends. Friends don't become business partners.

At our age (I'm 20) all these young stupid fcks just want to be rich but don't want to work for it. They don't deserve it. They see MTV and want to be like that. They see you'll be successful so they want on.

"The superior man is absent of sentiment and emotion"

It's business. No emotion. Leave your unqualified, wannabe, freeroling friends out of your business. Plain and simple. Watch what happens when you become rich alone, and how your "friends" change because they're jealous of you. It'll happen. Happened to me, and I'm glad I didn't bring those "friends" with me.



That's bull shit. They're basically saying make me rich so you won't be rich alone. DUMB FVCKING excuse to not do anything themselves.

Seriously if you hire your friends you deserve to be banned

My sister asked if she could be on my board for my new business and i was like "No your'e not qualified" n she said "Why not?" and I said "You have no financial expertise analyzing valuations or business plans."

I'll put her on payroll for a couple hundred a week, but I won't put her in a position if she's not qualified. And that's my sister.

If you're soo weak to give into having friends who are liabilities apart of your company...You're doomed buddy.

I actually just kicked my friend out of our business venture bc he was a liability not an asset. And now it'll be tougher to do it alone, but it's better than having a burden over my head.

Well said. I would have added a few more not so nice choice words to that posting.

OP.....YOU DON'T WANT FREELOADERS AND LAZY F'S AROUND IF YOU WANT TO MAKE IT BIG IN LIFE. EVEN SOME FAMOUS RICH PEOPLE CUT TIES WITH VERY CLOSE FRIENDS.

Good decision! Best of luck with the talent search! Check out college2startup.com the site has piqued my interest.

By the way you're in business. Capitalism.

Many people say "If I find a way to get rich im bringing all my friends with me"

That's called COMMUNISM. There's a reason why it doesn't work. Don't do it!

Best of luck on the entrepreneurial journey!