15 People Who Took a Risk to Start a Business With Their Close Ones

There is an opinion that friends and money should be kept separately. They say that where there are debts or work, there is no place for close relationships. However, some people dare to test it.

Of course, there are always bad stories, where people lose their money and friendship. But there are also pleasant exceptions. Those who have found in a friend not only support and fun, but also a reliable partner for their business.

Images created with artificial intelligence are used.

• A couple of months before Christmas, my friend and I decided to make a mini-studio and earn money on photoshoots. Her apartment was turned into a studio, my camera into a photographer’s tool. The idea was to get rich off the Christmas spirit.
  She decorated the space beautifully: Christmas trees, garlands, costumes. I shot, retouched, set up lights, bought props. At first, it was going great. The clients were happy. So were we.
  But with each shoot, I began to notice that my friend talked to me like an HR manager to a candidate with no experience. Arrogantly. Pretentiously. With irritation. I was a little surprised.
  I decided that she was just tired. I kept quiet. Because Christmas is the time of magic, not scandals. But a suspicion began to tingle inside, “It’s not friendship, it’s a corporate party.”
  And then I received a message, “You’re not doing a good job. You’re a procrastinator. I don’t want to work with you anymore. But you’re dear to me as a friend. I want to keep our friendship.” I read it and I get blown away.
  That was the end of our business and our friendship. And you know what? It’s a good thing. If you’re being told “you’re a procrastinator” rather than “let’s talk” in a partnership — that’s not business. It’s a toxic show. And no amount of decorations can hide it. © content_by.olesia
• My friend and I have long dreamed of having our own massage parlor, and we finally opened it. One day, she comes in and says with a serious face, “That’s it, it’s your turn to massage clients, I’m tired of it.” I stand in shock and can’t believe my ears, we dreamed of our own parlor for so long!
  And then she bursts out laughing and adds, “For 2 months. Remember, I signed up for training?” It turns out that she was going to another city to learn new techniques, so that upon her return, we could expand our list of procedures. To hell such jokes!

• Recently, a friend of mine approached me with a proposal to open our own studio. She does manicures and I do eyelash extensions. I hesitated for a long time whether it was time to open something of my own, because I was working in a salon.
  But in the end, I agreed and invested in our business. At first, things were not going well, because we spent a lot of money, bought furniture, rented a studio and invested in advertising, but there were no clients.
  However, it’s been 2 months now and things are going well. I go to work almost every day because I have more and more clients. My friend is not sitting idle, either. Just a bit longer, and we will be in the black. © Caramel / VK
• My friend and I decided to start our own business. We both love to read and therefore having studied the market of books, we realized that our hobby can bring us money. It turned out, we wouldn’t have many competitors in this area, and therefore we decided to create an online shop.
  We studied various business lessons, created business and content plans, approximately calculated our investments, loyalty program and much more. We barely slept and worked like crazy. We packed everything ourselves, took orders, wrote book reviews so that the page wouldn’t be empty. And we did it!
  People started talking about us. After 5 years of a Herculean effort, we opened a normal shop, which was just as successful. And all this we did together with my friend alone, shoulder to shoulder. Money didn’t break us up, but time tested our strength.
  And yes, without motivation and money it wouldn’t have been possible to achieve all this, I don’t argue, but I want to say that without a friend next to me, it wouldn’t have been possible. It’s because of our close bond that we were able to persevere and overcome everything. © Caramel / VK

• Probably many girls have had an idea of starting their own business during evening parties with friends. That’s how my close friend and I were sitting at my house, thinking about what kind of business to start. I filled half of my notebook with ideas, their pros and cons. Most of the time, these conversations just remain conversations.
  But we didn’t let it happen, because we immediately created a shop webpage and ordered the goods. Even more — we paid for them! Since that day, it’s been about 4 months, and the most amazing thing is that we are really engaged in that business, developing it and already have a lot of orders. © Caramel / VK
• When I was about 14 years old, I was planning my future — I wanted to go to the university to study economics, and then open an own business with my friend — a shop for teenagers... And you know what? It came true! © Not everyone will understand / VK
• Recently I faced a dilemma — to close the business or try to save it. Due to economic difficulties, my café was losing money, and it was not profitable to keep the business going. I had long dreamed of having my own café, and now I had to give it up.
  I still decided to give it a second chance and make a change. With the help of my friends, we redesigned the venue, changed the menu and started holding various events. And it worked, after 2 months the café was flourishing again, and my risk was worth the result. © Caramel / VK

• When I was a student, I dated a guy whose mom hated me because I wasn’t a match for him, in her opinion. He was from a “good family” and studied at a prestigious university, and I was expelled from the second year, and I earned money doing manicures. How many nasty things about my business I heard from her.
  But time went on, I got regular clients, then a friend and I rented a room in a local shopping center and opened our first salon. It was very difficult. But now my best friend and I are the owners of a whole chain. You can be successful in any business. © Overheard / Ideer
• A year ago, I opened a car studio with a friend and recruited a fun young team. I never thought that a place like this would be so appealing to people.
  In the evenings, our employees stay to relax with us, friends and even strangers, who after visiting us once, started coming every day. Fun, talking about everything in the world until night and a great friendly atmosphere. I was thinking of buying some plants to improve the atmosphere. I feel I don’t need to. © Overheard / Ideer
• When I was 12, I started a business with a friend — we caught lizards and sold them to kids in the yard. For a surcharge, you could buy food for them — berries. We prospered, until grandmothers began to investigate why children came from the shop without sweets and without money.
  When we got busted, we were scolded and forbidden to do it. I still don’t understand why, everything was fair! © Overheard / Ideer

• I’ve had a couple of bad experiences doing business with friends. And after that, I made a vow never to work with friends anymore.
  The first time, I opened business with a friend. He started bringing his friends to our office, freaked out when I asked about spending in the accounts, and eventually disappeared, setting me up in front of clients.
  The second time, I worked for a friend. At first, everything was fine. But then began, “Please understand me as a friend. I’ll lower your payment, I have a loan to pay for the car.” We split over that disagreement. © DVadim001 / Pikabu
• I worked at a family-owned pass me down business for many years. The drama that this situation can produce is unthinkable. Favoritism runs rampant, and if the family doesn’t like you — it’s tough. Not saying it can’t be done, just be very cautious when hiring family members. © sweet_static / Reddit
• I started selling seedlings with my sister. I planted, picked, ran the errands, and she helped on weekends.
  Imagine how I was shocked when one day she took all the cash (said she needed to take it to the bank), and came back with 2 gorgeous gold bracelets. For me and for her. She said she decided to reward us this way.
  I wanted to use this money to buy equipment for the house, to buy new clothes, and to invest some of the funds further. I ended up doing it all on my own the next year. And when she found out, she was terribly offended, saying that I had abandoned her.

• I am an artist. A friend asked me to draw a letter. I didn’t understand the task, but I did it. She said it was wrong. Then wrong again. And again. She got mad and then disappeared.
  A couple of months later, I saw an ad in her social media about the beginning of some educational project for kids. And there was a piece of handwriting practice on the poster.
  My first thought was, “Oh, that’s what you needed.” And then I thought, good thing she turned to someone else. I don’t want to work with my friends. For me, work is separate, friends are separate.
• About 10 years ago, a friend of mine frequented a restaurant we’ll call “Sam’s.” She befriended a lot of the regulars and hung out there a lot. Sadly, the owner of Sam’s ran into some health issues and decided to sell the restaurant as he could no longer run it.
  A couple of the regulars decided they’d buy the restaurant. These guys had no restaurant experience at all. One of them had worked in a bar, briefly, when he was in college. That was it. They pooled together the money to buy the place with the help of an “investor” family member.
  Sam’s was open under the new ownership, exactly 3 months before they ran out of funds. They had no idea what they were doing and had absolutely no business plan. Just liking something and being a customer of a place isn’t nearly enough to run it — you need to know the business, the ins and outs, how things work, etc. Expensive lesson learned, for sure. © Unknown author / Reddit

And here are stories about friendships that didn’t stand the test of time.