Ask any business owner what she would do differently if starting again and you will likely hear, “I would not have partners.” Partnerships are tough for a lot of reasons. Partnerships with best friends are IMPOSSIBLE!
If you and your best friend have talked for years about buying a franchise together and now you are looking, I beg you to reconsider. It WON’T work. No, you two are not different and yes I do understand. Give it up. Partnerships are really tough things as Neil Patel ably explains in his post Why Most Business Partnerships Don’t Work. Add friendship and possibly spouses into the mix and you have a lethal brew.
You and your friend, while having some great things in common more than likely have different life goals and goals for your business. The friendship can also make confrontation, which is already hard, even harder. Working together all day and then trying to hang out as friends on nights and weekends will get old really fast. If you have spouses in the mix then that adds another layer of complexity and the potential for misunderstandings, misalignment, misery, and ulcers. You could end up losing the friendship and the business.
So, keep the friendship by challenging each other to buy a franchise independently. Agree to be an advisor to each other. Place some friendly wagers on the success of each other’s business. Be an ear to bend and someone to lean on to each other. You will both be happier and your businesses more successful.
Now, if someone would like to prove me wrong and has a friends and partners success story, let us hear it!
