From the course: Small Business Secrets

Establishing guidelines with family and friends

From the course: Small Business Secrets

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Establishing guidelines with family and friends

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Working with family members and friends can be rewarding. It also can be a huge challenge. There's an old saying that, familiarity breeds contempt. That doesn't have to be the case though. We can establish a way of working together. Where familiarity, breeds productivity. I'm going to share with you five tips, that I've learned and used through the years, in working in small businesses that have family and friends working together. Tip number one is, set up an initial meeting. Invite all the people who are close with each other. And we're going to discuss how we're going to work together in the future. I recommend that, for this meeting, you bring in a third party, a facilitator, a mediator, someone who is a neutral party, who can navigate the conversation among all the different parties. Number two. Is, talk about what is working, and not working. First, list out all the things that work, in the relationship together. There are a lot of positive things that are happening, in a a family and friend environment. Then, list out all the things that aren't working. Avoid conversations about, why someone does something or the emotions involved, instead focus on the results that are happening in the business that aren't ideal. By listing both the positive and the negative out, you'll have a foundation to improve things going forward. Number three is, establish ground rules. By ground rules we mean, the basis of how we're going to work together, going forward. What are the guidelines to make sure that we're all playing by the same set of rules. There's no right or wrong here. I'll give you a couple of examples. First is a father and son team that worked together, where they established the rule that they always show up on time for meetings. And they always deliver assignments on time. Another was a group of friends that were working together. And they established the rule that they check their ego at the door, meaning they can speak freely when they're in the meeting. Doesn't matter again what those rules are. Just find out what works best for you. Number four is, document those rules. Put them down in a written format on paper, so that all of you can commit to them and agree together. And make that documentation so clear, that everyone can commit to it. And number five is, set up a consistent meeting schedule. It's so often in the day to day of running a small business to lose track of each other, to not communicate clearly. To assume, what the other person is thinking, feeling or doing. Instead, by having a regular meeting schedule, perhaps once a week, we can stay on the same page and make sure that we're communicating. Clearly with each other, especially using those ground rules that we created. The idea here is to establish a foundation, of how you'll work, with your family and friends. That way the business stays steady and familiarity will breed productivity.

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