Working for a Friend

Working for a friend (=the friendship existed before the business relationship) and especially negotiating a deal with him/her is very often a delicate matter as very often both parties are reluctant to go into “business talk” and shy away from being a business person doing tough negotiations.

Once both parties know that during negotiation the dialogue needs to be a little tougher than the usual conversation, it should be no problem to do this but the most problematic thing is always the first time working and negotiating with a friend as this can be quite irritating for both parties. On the other hand you should not sell yourself under value just because you are afraid of being too tough with a friend. So the bottom line is to make clear for both parties that the “negotiation mode” will be entered for the time of the negotiation and make even clearer that this mode will be left again after that.