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Comment by sergiotapia | Hacker News Reader

I disagree: You caught a lucky break here, but you are the exception, not the standard.

Family/friends and money don't mix well. They will always ruin the relationship. I've seen it countless times.

Absolutely yes. I am happy for the OP, but I must also disagree with his central point, i.e. "it's at least worth a try."

If things go south at all, you risk poisoning a family relationship. Family is precious; you generally only get one family. And you just cannot undo some types of damage done to/by family members.

I know a lot of people could hire their parents or siblings and get along great, but I also know a lot of people that don't talk to whole sides of their family after a nasty blowup. One should be very cautious when mixing money and blood, and ready to walk away from one or the other in a pinch.

It could also do the exact opposite, especially when contact is rare.

I agree with everything except the part about parents.

The problem arises when someone is irresponsible or has bad communication.

If you trust your parents and they are good with money then I think it is a great idea if they are willing to help with accounting. Good parents are always happy when their kids are successful.

Friends and other family members can cause problems even if the relationship seems good.

Always? Why do so many people insist in absolute work/life separation? It certainly hasn't been true throughout history. If you have to draw these clear lines it really just indicates an unhealthy understanding of the purpose of work, family, or both.

Huh? He said money and family/friends, not work and family/friends.

I think he is referring to family businesses throughout history.

Millions of family businesses think otherwise.

The difference is, in these cases the business hierarchy usually follows the family hierarchy. In other words, parents hire kids. This is an established paradigm. Sometimes siblings hire each other as well, and that can be OK more often than not.

But, that's not to say kids should hire parents. In that case, the business dynamic and family dynamic are very different. From a historical/statistical perspective this is an extremely unorthodox arrangement, for a good reason imho.

Maybe at first. But after the children take over, it will be the other way around.

If the children take over, this usually means the parents are retired.

Interesting. Is this also the case for siblings or other family relationships that are not parent-child? In my own experience I've seen quite a few businesses run by, say, the youngest son who essentially hired his older brother. I have no idea about the statistics on this; I'm just wondering.

There's various degrees of mixing family/money or in other words "doing business with family. Quitting your jobs, and taking out a loan to open a Tim Hortons (showing my Canadianism here) franchise together is a lot different than a retired mother doing some accounting for her son to make a bit of extra money. The latter seems fairly low risk.

I think you know your family and friends better than anyone else. He's not the exception, he just knew enough to trust his mom.

I think most mothers are okay to handle son's financial wealth, as long as they are not out of skills.

But I agree with you, this post is just a unique case.

Hiring family can be tough. If you would hire your Mom, would you also fire her?

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