Ask IH: Thoughts on hiring friends & family
Have you read any good blog posts covering this topic?
Have you hired family members or friends for your startup or project? If so what was your experience like and what advice would you give?
Have you read any good blog posts covering this topic?
Have you hired family members or friends for your startup or project? If so what was your experience like and what advice would you give?
Absolutely, 100%, without a doubt, don't do it. I'm speaking from experience. You can find people that have had good experiences working with friends and family, but why risk it?
Let's say there is a 90% chance things go great. That means there is a 10% chance things don't go great and you lose that relationship forever. It's just not worth the risk. There are plenty of people out there that would love to work for you that won't cause collateral damage. Hire them. If you and your family/friend fall out, it will negatively affect the rest of your family/friends too. You won't lose just the one relationship, you might lose all of them.
My advice: keep your friends and family as your cheerleaders. You will need their encouragement when things get tough.
A co-worker that is a friend is okay, as long as you are okay with firing them and losing the friendship.
I kind of like this site, which is run by two brothers and was bought by a huge company also run by two brothers! 😁
A lot of hugely successful businesses are family-run. Some endure for generations and even centuries. In fact, I would say that they're the historical norm and the western world currently has an anomalously low percentage of family firms, though large exceptions such as Walmart exist.
It's really important to determine what type of project it is and what you want out of it. The formality/risk scales with the 'seriousness' of the project.
If it's a project for fun or on the side, then sure, it becomes a fun activity/hobby to work on together.
If you're starting a business or startup, or the project evolves to that trajectory, you need to get clear up front about accountability, roles and responsibilities, what happens if things go well, or not so well, etc. Firing someone I considered a friend is just about the hardest thing I've had to do, and we haven't spoken since.
The saying goes that when you work with friends you'll either end up friends with little success (because you can't hold each other accountable), or successful with no friend (because accountability doesn't go over well).
I've hired a friend for some time (about a year).
I think part-time can be fine, but not a full-time since you can postpone/don't tell him about what to improve, etc. He can take you less seriously than he should. Also, it's harder to lay off your friend/family member.
So, in any case, you'll be putting more stress on yourself.
This comment was deleted 7 years ago