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Erik: What has been most challenging about building a business with friends?
Mike: I would say that sometimes when personal things come up you have to be there for your
friend as a friend and have to put the business part on the side for the time being. That
becomes difficult because you should always be thinking about your business. Business
should always be number one, but that doesn’t always happen when you have a friend, when
a friend is dealing with some things that are difficult, the friendship has to come
first, that’s not effective and efficient business, but that’s being a good friend.
That creates more of a bond and then will benefit the company but at the time if one
of your business partners is going through something rough or is trying to handle something
they are not putting the most time into the business and now you have to step aside and
take less time out of the business to be a good friend to this person cause you know
them better than anyone else, now there’s even more of a void. So, if that person wasn’t
your friend and they had a whole group of other friends then their other friends could
handle that and you could concentrate then more time on the business, but when you have
personal things come up and we’ve all dealt with that and I know when I’ve dealt with
personal things and my business partners were there for me that was less time that they
were spending on the business. So, the problem with doing business with friends is that your
friends need attention sometimes and it takes away from your business but hopefully in the
long run it’s beneficial.