Introduction
Friends are very important part of life for
everyone. They are the people beyond family that know well and regard with
affection and trust. Friends help us and support in any occasions. Because of
several reasons, starting a business with a friend is something that decides very
carefully. If the business goes wrong that effects to the friendship and also
if the business make success that helps to extent friendship more.
In this article I explored and tried
to find the findings that related to a topic, the pros and cons of organizing a
small business with a friend. Before going to details it’s important to know
what is pros and cos. These two words, pros and cons are used for good points
and bad points or advantage and disadvantage. Pros used for good point or
advantage, cons used for bad points or disadvantage. By searching internet I
found an article in Forbes Web site that written by (Susman, 2015) the co-founder and
CFO of TheSquareFoot.
His topic is should you build a business with your best friends? 6 pros and
cons. In the article he shared his experience, advantage and disadvantage of
starting business with friends.
Analyse
Data in Relation to the Topic
This
article is not based on a research. Therefore such data is not included, but
the author has written his own experience while starting their business TheSquareFoot with his
friends and he marked 3 pros and 3 cons of starting business with friend. TheSquareFoot
is a New York-based commercial real estate technology company that provides
online real estate search and concierge services. The company has raised more
than $13 million in funding.
He
described at the end of 2010 he was looking for office space for his old
company, and the process seemed absurdly frustrating. He couldn’t believe
that’s how it was done. So he called Jonathan, who had some experience in the
industry, and asked him to describe to him the leasing process for an office
space. He described the process exactly the way he was doing it. Finally he got
through the leasing process, but those first phone calls initiated the idea for
a better leasing process, and TheSquareFoot was born. Since that day a few
years ago, they have been working together to make the office leasing process
as simple as possible.
He
said while working with close friends has its pluses, also run the risk of
pushing each other's buttons and disregarding that professional "line in
the sand." They were concerned about starting a business with friends, so
he advised before starting a business, take a look at the pros and cons for
that.
The Pros and Cons starting business with his
friends he described
·
Trust each other. Having known these guys for more than a
decade, have a level of trust that comes with the "best friend"
territory. Know that no matter what,
there are no agendas: each want the business to succeed, and that’s ultimate
goal.
·
Can speak freely and comfortably. Friends developed such trusting, honest
relationships with each other, feel comfortable speaking about anything, and not
afraid to call each other on our Bose.
·
Share the same vision of leadership. Know
these guys so well, know that they have the same vision for leadership that do.
There are often times when at a meeting, have an idea, and then all look
at each other, knowing exactly what the other is going to say next.
As for the cons:
·
Know too much. The reason there’s so much trust between each
other. me and the guys is that we know almost everything there is to know about
each other, and sometimes that can be a little much. Because we are embedded
with the knowledge of one another’s personal life it sometimes can be hard to
separate work from home life. My advice would be to try to compartmentalize
"work" and "personal." We do a great job of having a tough
disagreement and then leaving for dinner with the decision to not discuss work.
·
Boundaries are fewer. Speaking comfortably can sometimes breach a
barrier of comfort to the point where it’s disruptive.
·
Risk a power struggle. While typically share the same vision, there
can sometimes be confusion about who’s really in charge. If other
colleagues ask for guidance from more than one of us and we give different
answers, no one knows whose guidance to follow. Ninety-nine times out of
100 we can fix this with a bit of clear communication, but there’s that one
time that can cause a bit of a power struggle. Make sure the message from the
top stays the same.
Conclusion
The
article written by Aron Susman is very interesting. He said the fact he working with friends is
that he spend all day with them, work feel like school or college. The way how
he started a business with his friends can be used for us to start new business
with our friends. And also it is important that to be consider his views of
pros and cons of starting business with friends that he described. In addition
he said if you're considering starting a business with your friends, he suggest
you go by one rule: if you have known them for fewer than three years,
tread very carefully; if longer, you can feel more confident in your
understanding their character and how well they'll make the decisions that
could make or break your business.
Reference
Susman, A.
(2015, August 17). Forbes. Retrieved September 20, 2019, from Forbes Web site:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2015/08/17/should-you-build-a-business-with-your-best-friends-6-pros-and-cons/#2a49a60d7693
