Should you work with friends?

Should you work with friends or relatives? It sounds great. Working with a person you know and using your skills to help them along with a project. 

When I moved into our current home, the walls needed some serious attention. I once tried to plaster, thinking it was like icing a very big cake, which I can do. It’s not. When my friend Andy, who is a skilled plasterer, said he could sort it out, I said yes and paid him for his skills. He’s a friend who runs a business.

Often creative skills can feel invisible. Many service businesses have reported that ‘a picking of brains’ has become hours of free advice that propels a business forward but would otherwise have been chargeable. 

Here are some hair curling areas of conflict I’ve heard about:

• The friend was learning a new skill and trying something out with limited success and broke the thing.

• There was a conflict of interest or personal values away from the project.

• There was an imbalance of skills if it was a skills swap.

• Systems were not followed or there was scope creep because ‘we’re friends, right?’

• One or both had outgrown the agreement, if there was one.

You may recognise them or have experienced different problems. People might sit within a client/friend/family place in our lives and forget that we run businesses with liabilities, policies and standards. I have been there too and a situation recently meant a review of boundaries.

I have two important documents that form part of every project. My Terms and Conditions which sets out the official and legal tone. I also share my Setting Up For Success document which details workflows, software and useful information about communications. The project always sits in my official communication places on Hello Lovely Design and Co emails and recorded on my CRM (client management system that keeps administration and financial records). Emails in other accounts or on social media are not acceptable once the brief starts.

So, should you work with a friend? 

Here’s my Q&A:

• Are they actually a friend? Ouch, that sounds cruel doesn’t it? But pausing to get some reflection on what relationship is important

• Why you? Have they fallen out with a previous provider? Don’t forget the checks you may usually make.

• Will they sign your contract? Regardless of what you put in the total fee, your business terms are very important.

• What is the monetary value here? Work out what they want and how much it’ll cost and I advise that you include the full rate with the appropriate discount - I wished I’d done that on a website and branding project back in the early days.

• Does the project actually appeal to you and would it sit well in your portfolio?

• Has this person got our best interests at heart? What might be their passion might not be yours and it’s easy to get caught up in being helpful. 

• You can be helpful but you could look at skills swaps or a donation to a chosen charity if that felt better.

• Do you trust them to communicate with transparency? Friends or family may assume you already know what they need.

• Would you recommend them to another person in your profession?

That might help you with an evaluation. 

What about you, have you worked with a friend and did it go well? Or was there something you could have done differently?