Working with family is not something uncommon in business industry. In fact, many businesses are run for generations with family members as the main holders. Hiring family member when starting your business is possible. However, you may want to take some precautions to maintain peaceful relation with them. Your family are important for you and so is your business. You need to find balance to stay professional without feelings getting in the way.
How to maintain peace when family members hired to help you run your business
There are many things you need to consider when deciding to work with relatives. There are many business issues you need to deal with. And with your relatives being your business partners or employees, the issues will be like twofold. You need to find ways to keep balance between professional and personal relationships. And here are some tips you can consider to do so:
Lay everything out in advance
Before you are proceeding to hire your relatives, make sure to discuss the details of it first. You may need to discuss some of the most vital details such as shareholder rights, stock value, voting powers, etc. Extensive communication is key for successful partnering between relatives. Creating clear agreement from the start will help avoid unnecessary fights that potentially happen later. Do not assume family members will always look out for one another. Signing documents is the right thing to do even if you work with close family members.
Set clear boundaries
To maintain professionalism, it is important to set clear boundaries. Merging family with work, there are several issues potentially ruin everything such as family politics, nepotism, unjust favoritism, etc. Bringing family conflict to business can harm the business. Hence, setting clear boundaries will help separate personal issues from professional ones.
Equal treatment
Unfair treatment is one of the most common practice happened when working with family members, be it positive or negative. It is possible that you set higher expectations and be more critical of your family members when working. The opposite might happen as well. To prevent this type of unfairness, it is best to give everyone equal treatment family or not.
Maintain balance
When working with family, it seems to be more challenging to follow a saying ’leave work at work’. one of the most challenging things about maintaining work-life balance with a family members who are also your work associates is to spend non-work time with them. Meanwhile, it is vital to keep the family members in the family category first before business category.
Pros and cons of working with family members
There are pros and cons of working with family members. For example, you get a sense of familiarity and comfort when working with the people you have known well. You already know their beliefs, values, and skills. However, the downside is that it can be challenging for you to correct behavior of them that might not meet your business values and cultures while you don’t want to have a conflict.