Family is forever. We love ours, and without their support, a lot of small businesses never would have gotten off the ground. That said, when you work with your family, boundaries can get blurred, and emotions can run high.
We’ve put together a list of ways you can work with your family or loved ones…without falling out with them.
Develop clear roles for your family
There’s a desire for families to pitch in and help each other—but when translated to the business realm, this has the possibility to step on each other’s toes, and lead to resentment. If you define job roles clearly, you can avoid overlap and miscommunication.
Think twice before investing all of your families’ equity into your business
This is taken directly from a customer of ours, and I thought it was great advice; “We all know what happens when you invest family money in your business—it’s incredibly difficult to pull it back out, even when your business is making money you tend to invest it back into your business rather than repay yourself or your family.” Angelo Peloni, La Bruschetta.
Always be respectful of each other
Tensions can run high in any workplace—and when you have to see your co-worker at the dinner table too, it can be even harder. We tend to speak to our family members more candidly than we do our co-workers—it’s important to remember boundaries and that you do have to see each other after tempers have calmed.Don’t ruin relationships for sake of your business
Don’t ruin relationships for sake of your business
We understand that a lot of you could not have started and grown your business without the help and support of your family—but it’s important to take a step back and reassess your working relationship with your family as well. If the business has grown, perhaps it’s time to go back to just being family, and hire additional staff to pitch in on the business—especially if your personal relationships are suffering for it.
