The Huffington Post had a fantastic article today titled Mompreneurs: Best Friends & Business Partners.  The article tells the story of two young mothers who started “Capital City Mamas” — a family business focused on providing resources for moms and moms-to-be in the Washington D.C. area.  The key lesson these young moms face: balancing a strong friendship with building a strong business.

Rather than jump quickly into a venture, the two moms: Sharon Cichy and Meredith Wade carefully weighed the decision over the course of two full years.  They went beyond typical business plan topics and dove deeper, discussing issues such as “work ethic, time commitment and balancing family.”  With combined backgrounds in both adolescent teaching and law, these moms meant business from the start.

For family businesses, many of these lessons translate into the same challenges facing family firms.  Sharon and Meredith offer the following tips for managing a successful relationship while balancing the needs of their business:

Top Tips for Working with Your Best Friend:

• Keep work life and personal life separate and allow some time for friendship apart from work.

• Know that no matter what happens with work and what disagreements you have, nothing matters more at the core than your friendship, which is what got us where we are.

• Give your business partner space for the things outside of work that matter to them, and always be supportive of their needs.
• Listen and be respectful.

Top Tips for Balancing Family Time and Business Time:

• Work at night.
• Take advantage of the times that your family needs aren’t as great by getting as much done as you can, so that when family needs to arise, you feel okay relying more on your business partner.
• Focus on work when you work, focus on family when you are with family, and do whatever you can to remain undistracted.

Sharon and Meredith abide by one rule: family first.  In this way, their message applies to all family businesses.  Balancing the needs of family and a booming business is a challenging task, by constantly setting rules and boundaries and understanding the separation between the two — families can achieve success in all areas of their lives, business, professional and personal.

For more information, consult the Huffington Post Article Here.