Do you work with or refer friends? Should they mix?Here is a discussion I am interested in. Do you work with or refer your friends for business purposes?
Some people feel that you should not mix business with friendship. So can you or should you expect referrals from your friends?
I was raised that the greatest compliment is to refer your friends and that the best business lead is from a referral.
What do you think?
I have friends that I work with, and friends that I would refer. These are people that I know do excellent work. I know a lot of very talented people.
But, I'm very upfront with people I consider my friends, and if I had to, I would refuse to refer someone. I consider a referral my word that the person's work will meet very high standards.
Personally, I think the greatest compliment is referring someone to a friend that I know this friend would love to work with.
I have people refer web design clients to me all the time, but when they are looking for something that I don't want to provide clients, it's a waste of my time to meet with that person.
I do refer to friends, but I discriminate and weed out bad customers for them. I don't want them to waste their time any more than I want to give a bad referral.
Rebecca
I often become friendly with people I work with, but I rarely work with people who are already friends. Mostly because I've seen too many friendships fall apart fast as soon as dollars and cents get involved.
Ah, see, there seems to be two camps. One, where working with and referring friends is a sign of loyalty and support. The other, were to be a good friend, friends separate business from their friendship to protect that relationship.
I hope I am getting it right. I can see both sides of the discussion. I really want my friends to succeed and if I can help them get more business then I will. Also I know that the best people to look out for my interests are my friends.
But on the flip side what if you don't feel your friend is right for the job or they aren't doing what you need from them. How do you "let them go" and still maintain that friendship?
It's a sticky situation. I would like to find a middle ground, any ideas anyone?
I had similar ponderings back in March, and launched a thread in Biz Talk which gathered some interesting comments. The post is titled "Working with Friends and Family"
--cheers.
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