On Friendships and Doing business with friends

It’s a small world, the expression, “Circle of life” as used in the Disney Classic, Lion king, comes to mind when I picture how connected we are; and beyond meeting someone virtually or physically who knows someone who knows someone that knows someone we know, is how our disappointment while having dealings with one person can affect how we relate with another who might not know the former or have intentions to act in the same way s/he did but whose offence is being categorized with the ‘Friend and or Family’ tag.

It’s so hilarious how many times people would rather change the subject when I speak of patronizing friends and family. Almost every adult I know has been disappointed patronizing a friend, an acquaintance a colleague, someone we knew on a personal level before business brought us together.

It is so bad, some would rather patronize and or take a chance on others that aren’t people they know. To further put this in context, the person typing this is expecting a friend to deliver on an agreed service, two weeks after he agreed it would be delivered.

Should things be this way? There was a time I heard friends and family were the first on the list of probable clientele of a new business, it’s funny how that advice is fast becoming obsolete.

I hope to offer a bridging counsel on this discourse having been on both sides of the divide and I’ll come for the client friend first, and the service provider or Vendor friend next.

I know you know when s/he started the business, you might have even given a loan or helped out in one way or the other to the start of that business, but I want you to keep in mind one thing I’ve been repeated in this sentence, It’s the word BUSINESS.

No matter how easy it looks like the skill comes to your friend who owns a business you should understand s/he now does it for profit. Some have running costs taking your order would cost them please don’t bid prices with them unfairly.

Some (Of course I can’t speak for everybody) of them would love to do the job for you for free in the sincerity of their heart but for salaries, they have to pay and bills they would have to clear and running costs they have to incure, and the truth remains that there exists the possibility of finding someone who does it cheaper either due to the scale and or expertise of the competition’s business, if it’s within our budget we should still try to patronise our friends.

One last thing, try as much as you can to have whatever agreement you both have in black and white, so grey areas can be ironed out and in cases where disagreements arise someone you both respect can come in and have at least a summary of what transpired without it being just your words against theirs. When you’ve kept to your part of the bargain, do well to hold them accountable to fulfill theirs.

N/B. All these were written with the assumption of sanity in mind, on both your side and that of your friend, in cases of deviation from this I can be consulted for tweaks to this counsel.😂😂

I know you have plenty of complaints and reservations about our service provider friends, but till I write in a subsequent publication which I can foresee should be double the length of this one to the service provider/vendor friend.

Hope this helps your friendships.

#MisterJacque #Friendshipfriday

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