Friends, Family and Business

One of my retirement jobs was a client based financial services job.   In our training, we were encouraged to call on friends and family to build our client base.   I didn't follow this protocol and in fact, purposely avoided offering my services to friends and family.  I did this for the following reasons:

1. Keep business and personal relationships separate.  When I was working, I maintained only business relationships with co-workers.   I learned this principle from one of my early bosses and reapplied it.   This principle ensured that I only had to consider one relationship for any interactions and avoided having one relationship influence a decision in the other relationship.
2. Privacy.  I don't want to know the specific financial situations of my friends and family, e.g. how much they make, amount of charitable contributions, taxes paid, etc.  These types of  information would not likely be shared in the normal course of a personal relationship.
3. Financial dependency.    I don't want to depend on friends and family for wage or commission income, especially if it could negatively impact the personal relationship. 

I've been pretty good at separating personal and business relationships.  The one exception is that I offered to do some of my mother-in-law's financial services when my father-in-law passed away.  However, 2013 is the last year since I won't be doing the financial service job in 2014.

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This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2013 Achievement Catalyst, LLC