My husband is an ideas man, and he is always coming up with new business ideas for himself. He typically doesn't act on them, but he likes to share these ideas with family and friends to see what they think. On more than one occasion, he has shared his ideas with family members who then offered to come work with him if he turned it into an actual business. I told my husband he should be careful about giving people too much hope when something is still in the idea phase and also it may not be wise to start a business with family. Often these people don't have anything to contribute to the business other than labor, but they would expect to be treated better and compensated more than the average employee. Anyway, I'm curious to hear what others think. Would you go into business with your family, or do you think business and family don't mix?
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Maybe. Depends on what they can bring to the business, if they're a worker bee and if we all have the same view point on money.
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Never not in my family anyway
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Never, no matter how awesome my relationship with that family member was or what the business was.
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Well my husband and I both work for family, and a huge number of people I know work with or for family, so it can be fine. It's pretty common around here for siblings to start businesses together. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. Sometimes they don't work and families break apart, and sometimes they don't work and families get over it. I don't think it's a death sentence or anything. I think it could be just ask risky to start a business with close friends.
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Never. My dad had a family business while I was young.
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I think it depends on the people. My uncle (married to my dad's sister) owns a company and my dad bought a franchise from him 30 years ago and there hasn't ever been an issue with them being family.
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Sure, I grew up in a family business and I have worked with my husband on multiple occasions. It just depends what the nature of the work is.
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@Mrs.KMM: I think working together and buying a franchise from him is different...
I think it's better not to mix family and business unless it's a family business lol.
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I agree that some businesses may be better for families than others. My husband's business knowledge is with e-commerce, so his ideas revolve around starting his own e-commerce company where he manufactures a product and sells it through an online store. He has the software, marketing and business knowledge to do this, but his family does not. The only thing they could contribute would be labor, but that's not necessary in e-commerce when the labor is usually outsourced. I think for a family business to work well, the other family member needs to have something to offer that is beneficial to the company.
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Nope! Too much drama can happen. Not worth damaging a great relationship with work drama or especially money troubles. Yikes.
I'd say a maybe if a family member was a silent partner, but even then you never know if they change their mind and not be silent later on if the business grows.
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Yup. I currently work for my Dad with my husband, brother, sister, BIL and our cousin's husband (whew, that's a lot of family!). We are successful and more importantly, have a lot of fun and have great relationships with one another.
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I think it completely depends on your family dynamics! I could maybe go in business with my brother (but doing what, I have no idea!).
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@tequiero21: My dad still has to frequently work with my uncle as a franchisee. It may not be day-to-day interactions, but they definitely are still working together. And my dad has to be willing to accept that sometimes my uncle, as the business owner, gets the final say in decisions and things that my dad must do with his store.
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I would just be worried that if things go badly you can't just walk away. Or if you do you're walking away from a lot more than a business partner.
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@Mrs.KMM: ahhh, good to know, thx!
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I couldn't work with family if the dynamics were uneven. So I could go into business with my brother if we were both part owners. But I couldn't be the owner and have him just provide labor or vice versa. There are also only very specific family members I would consider doing this with (who I trust to be smart business people).
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Not with anyone in my family (too many big personalities). I'd consider going into business with my husband, but our fields are totally different.
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I'm a partner in a business with my husband but I couldn't work with anyone else in either of our families. They are all terrible with money.
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I have zero desire to start/run my own business, so it wouldn't even be a question for me. It was actually something that I discussed with my husband prior to marriage because he occasionally toys with the idea of starting his own business and I let him know that if he married me, that wasn't really going to be an option.
But I think it can work out well for other families!
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19 comments