Episode 26 - Running a business with a long distance business partner
apple podcasts | SPOTIFY | GOOGLE PODCAST
Today we’re gonna be chatting about a topic that is so important to us — what it’s like to run a business with each other remotely! As some of you guys may know, Julia is over in Hawaii and Toni is in PA. With that, we’ve learned how to successfully run a business as long distance business partners! So maybe you’re looking to start a remote business, or maybe you’re curious what it’s like to have a business partner - we’re diving into this topic and sharing our experiences! Let’s get into it.
Should you go into business with your friend?
One of the first things we wanted to discuss is the common rule to not get into business with your friends. We know it can be incredibly hard to work with friends or family because you never want to tarnish those relationships. However, we believe that when you are able to establish roles and expectations right in the beginning of the business, you immediately have a leg up. When you start a business, you don’t want to think of an exit strategy or the worst case scenario, but you need to do that especially when entering business with a friend. If you can have clear and honest communication up front, that will save you a lot of time and frustration down the road.
Being intentional
One important thing we’ve had to learn is about learning how to be intentional with each other to keep a healthy friendship separate. As business partners, you don’t want to just focus on business with each other all the time. You want to still have your friendship and be able to take the emotions out of the business relationship. This is definitely hard to do, but we’ve had to communicate since the beginning that we have to still make time for our friendship regardless of anything else.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Before getting into a business partnership, take a hard look at yourself, and have your partner do the same. Ask yourselves if you have a comfortable balance, and have differences that will compliment each other. We’ve had to evaluate what we both bring to the table in our business. If you are trying to run a successful business (or even relationship), you have to both bring two different things to the partnership. It’s great to bring different strengths and weaknesses to the table to balance each other out.
Prioritizing Communication
Honesty is KEY in a business partnership. If you disagree on something within your business, or the way that it’s running, you have to set times to communicate clearly and honestly to each other. For us, we have a 6 hour time difference which definitely a challenge for us. If we don’t pencil in times to meet and check in with one another, our schedules won’t align. Because we have a solid friendship, we are also able to give each other grace when life gets busy. When things get overwhelming for either one of us, we are able to pass off responsibilities to one another and be understanding of that.
Set healthy work boundaries
Because of our time difference, it’s been so important for us to set healthy work boundaries with each other. We both have had to communicate specific times and dates in advance about specific topics. For example, we touch base about social media only between 3-4pm EST every Monday. This has been super helpful for us in order to get things done and have specific topics discussed in those timeframes.
Ultimately, running a business with your best friend is so much fun but also comes with its challenges! We love watching our business grow together and wouldn’t want to do it with anyone else!
