Should you start a business with a friend?
A friendship gives you a starting point. Examine the working arrangement you would each be choosing.
You and a friend have an idea for a business. You know each other well, enjoy talking about it and can imagine sharing the work. Before deciding how far to take it, I would ask each of you to describe an ordinary week in that business.
What would you spend your time doing? Which decisions would you want to share, and which responsibilities would you prefer the other person to take? Put your answers beside each other. You may find a difference that the excitement around the idea has left unexplored.
Name the work you want to share
Begin with what you want from working together. Perhaps you want help finding customers, someone to share delivery with or another person to think through decisions. Those are different reasons to involve a friend. Name the work you would want them to take responsibility for.
Then ask which work they want to do. A person can enjoy discussing a business idea without wanting the everyday responsibility that comes with it. Give each other room to be specific about the parts you would enjoy and the parts you would find difficult.
Imagine two friends considering a small advisory business. One wants to spend most of the week meeting clients. The other enjoys developing the service and wants long stretches without meetings. That difference could give them a way to divide the work. They still need to discuss who handles a customer question that interrupts delivery, and what happens when both want the other person to deal with it.
Describe the week you each want
Write down what a sustainable working week would look like for you before comparing answers. Include work you want to keep doing yourself and what needs to remain possible outside the business. Your friend can make their own version.
Make any difference concrete. If one of you wants to be available to customers in the evenings, what would that ask of the other person? If one wants to take on more work, who would deliver it? Talk through an ordinary customer request and the week it would create for each of you.
You do not need identical ambitions or routines. You do need to examine the arrangement they would produce. Notice where an attractive idea depends on your friend accepting work they have said they want less of. Ask what you would change before relying on that arrangement.
Try one defined piece of work together
If you both want to explore the idea further, choose a piece of work with a clear end. You might prepare a proposed service together, or work through how you would deliver a hypothetical assignment. Agree what each person will do and when you will discuss what happened.
Keep that discussion close to the work. Where did a decision wait for the other person? Which responsibility was left between you? Give each other a chance to explain a different view before deciding what the disagreement means.
Compare the experience with the week you each described. You may want to divide the work differently, narrow the idea or try another task. The trial gives you something specific to examine. It does not establish that a shared business will work in every situation.
Choose what you want to do next
A useful next step could be another defined task, a change to the proposed roles or a decision to leave the idea for now. Say what you have chosen and what remains unresolved. Avoid turning an enjoyable conversation into an assumption that you have both committed to the same working arrangement.
Return to your own reasons for considering it. Which part of working with your friend still appeals to you after you have discussed the ordinary work? What would you need to understand before taking the next step? You can care about the friendship and take time over the business decision.
Bring those questions to business coaching if you want help examining your own part in the choice. We can look at what you want to do personally, what gives you energy and which next step you want to take. The first conversation stands on its own; you decide afterwards whether to continue.