Business with family? (Inlaws)

[JaxAttacks]

Do any of you have experience doing business with family? Tell me the good, bad and ugly!

I have an opportunity to go into business with my father in law(and his friend), so Im trying to analyze the situation.

At the moment, I'm leaning toward doing it, but I don't want to jump in without considering it thoughtfully.

I appreciate your thoughts!

 

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[Supa]

Never did business with a family member, but with my best friend. Was my (our) first attempt at business after both of us read TMF .

In the beginning it was great, the idea phase, where we would sit there and talk and talk about what we want to do and how we want to do it and all that stuff. But as soon as it really got down to put in action, the trouble began. Different opinions, different work ethics, different mindsets, and so on. One of the biggest problems was that he read TMF completely at that point while I stopped reading it at 1/3 through the book (back in 2011). After I finally finished reading it in 2015 I understood what mistakes I did and my lack of action taking. I decided to quit our business and rather put an end to our business than to our friendship (or what remained of it).

I don't regret what happened, I see it as a failure to learn from. I'm not generally against business partnerships between friends/family but I think you have to prepare yourself for a change in your friendship/relationship. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

 

[Chris Kelsey]

Be careful, everything goes great until it turns bad at one second. I would suggest making absolutely CLEAR expectations in regards to what each person is doing. I know that doing business with friends can be really bad, and is often very likely to change or ruin the friendship. At other times, it can go great, but whenever money is in issue then you see just how greedy your friends and family members can become