A few years back, when the company was growing particularly quickly, I made a decision to hire my friends. Although, I had been warned by many others that this was a bad idea, I was sure that I was going to do things differently.

I was going to have a management layer over my closest friends and then they could have the uncomfortable conversations should they arise.

Needless to say, this strategy worked for a time, however at some point, things got tough and I had to make some serious decisions. I had to lay-off my buddies.

This was one of the toughest few months of my life. There was hurt and heartache all around despite my (and their) best efforts.

Working with your friends is absolutely great, until it’s not. We were all fortunate to make it out on the other side and are closer than ever, however things could have easily swayed in another direction.

So, please don’t ignore the advice that I did. Keep your friends and business separate, you will all be much happier in the end.