The sweet-bitter mix of love and business

9 months ago

Mixing business with love is often seen as something that will end in disaster and when you truly look at most cases when this happens, it ends badly most of the time. I personally believe that making sentimental decisions isn’t always bad and it totally depends on the type of business. For a trader who always gives out their goods for free to family members, that’s certainly a recipe for disaster. Or even when such traders give out discounts all the time to friends, in the end, they will realize that they are making little to no profit at all

some people’s businesses have even closed down because of this issue and some people have even had to relocate their business far away from family and friends. This reminds me of a friend who had to move his business to a very far place because family and friends were always asking for discounts anytime they came to his place, and his business wasn’t growing because of this. I have also made sentimental decisions on my business and it didn’t affect me negatively. In fact, it even helped me to improve my skills.

This happened back when I was a graphics designer. I sometimes did free work for friends who needed logos and e-flyers, and it actually helped me get better at designing. Besides, those designs were easy because I wasn’t under pressure to make them perfect (since they weren't paying). I always told them back then that I would only work on the designs when I was free and had no other job to do. I was just starting out back then and doing free jobs was a good way to get free publicity and put my work out there for people to see, and it totally worked

The one time I can agree that this wasn’t a very good idea was when I was working for a cybercafe many years ago. We do everything a regular cybercafe does (photocopying, typing, passport photographs, and internet services). My boss had a job and this meant that I was the only one managing the business from morning till evening, by which time my boss would have closed from his job. My friends knew where I worked and would always come to do one thing or the other, which I did free of charge.

I didn’t really think much about the work I did for my friends because they were little things but I knew it was wrong because if my boss was always around, then I wouldn’t have done them for free. It wasn’t my business and I had no right to do free things for my friends, I just took advantage of the fact that my boss wasn’t always around. Even though I was doing all that, I also learned how to apply wisdom and will always collect money from my friends for big jobs which were stressful. The most I could do in such cases was to offer them a discount.

As I said earlier, it is not totally bad to make business decisions based on just sentiments but at the same time, it shouldn’t be done in excess. A balance should be struck between the two and it is important to set boundaries with family and friends. I mean, telling them clearly from the start how you run your business will prevent them from always trying to take advantage of it. Some family and friends clearly understand this rule and they will always tell you to treat them like every other customer, which is how it is supposed to be.

But some on the other hand are just after their own benefits, it is then up to you to not let them ruin your business. Personally, I would think hard about making sentimental decisions before actually carrying them out. First ask yourself if such a decision will negatively affect your business and if it doesn’t, then go ahead. It might be difficult at first because most people would rather not cause problems with their family and friends, again that’s why it is important to make it clear to them from the start before they start making demands.

Thanks for reading