FIG News Blog

Fun. Friends & Barney Stinson.

Posted by James King at 1:00 01/08/09

True Story.

http://barneysvideoresume.com/resume_info.htm

“Don’t hire / work with your friends” is a common cliché that is thrown about.

I’d say the phrase is a little off… personally, I’d go for;

“Don’t hire / work with your friends unless you are absolutely sure that;

  • They are really good / intelligent / hard-working / experienced
  • They would be perfect for the job
  • They can separate work and play

And that they fulfil ALL of these criteria.“

Working with your mates can be an absolute disaster and ruin friendships… but, conversely it can be awesome, friendship affirming, unbelievably satisfying and fun.

I work with my best friends. Marco and I have been friends for years. Herb has become a close friend having invested in FIG… despite his relentless banter.

We relish in each other’s success, we support each other in work, we cheer each other on and we also know that we can share in the same social activities because we all get paid (/ don’t get paid) at the same time.

We feel responsible for each other’s well-being. And when FIG has good news we rock out together. Hard.

Would I go into business with all my friends?

NO WAY PEDRO! Not a chance.

I didn’t choose to work with the guys because we were friends. I got Marco on board because he is ridiculously good at marketing, he has incredible patience and he is not afraid of hard work. Marco is creative, understanding and funny. More importantly, he is perfect for his role as Marketing Director and Head of CRM*. He has experience and he shone during his three-month trial period.
(*Client Relationship Management)

Equally, I don’t work with Herb because he’s my friend, he’s my friend because I work with him. I work with him because he epitomises the FIG concept. He started his business (BrightSparks) as a student with no more than a laptop and a mobile. And he rocked it.

Herb, Marco and I argue. We have, on occasion, yelled at one another. We disagree on a lot of things… we agree on more, but we aren’t each other’s “yes men”.

Far from it, Marco keeps me in check constantly and Herb challenges me regularly.

We work well as friends and business partners as we have a mutual understanding. Once we step out the office door (and head to the pub) we leave the office grievances behind us.

Occasionally we might talk shop out of the office… but we try not to. And it works, it works very well. We are all able to tell be told that we are “a complete idiot” and that our idea “ranks on the same level as the ‘bath toaster’“ and forget about it once we are safely in possession of that magical first pint.

Team moral is important. At FIG I’ve drawn upon my experience, being involved in several start-ups, working for SMEs as well as Bluechips, and enforce regular trips to the pub.

Friday afternoon, at 5:30, we hit the pub on mass. Of course, we can’t do this every Friday… and sometimes we only go for a quick drink before returning to the office to work some more… but for the vast majority of Fridays, we hit the pub.

We don’t enforce alcoholic drinking but we do enforce participation in a weekly vote. There are two votes. One for ‘div of the week’ and one for ‘hero of the week’.
The ‘div of the week’ buys everyone their first round and the ‘hero of the week’ doesn’t have to buy a round for the evening / however long we stick around.

Both awards are for fun… It is certainly not “Nicky is the div of the week because she forgot to send an invoice and as a result everyone’s pay got delayed by a week” and nor is it “Michael is the hero of the week as he hit all his targets”.

It is more like “Marco is the div of the week as he told the nice lady at IBM that he ‘really liked her balls’ [stress balls they were handing out]“ and “Nicky is the hero of the week as she convinced James to have a haircut”.

It works for us, it may not work for your organisation, it may sound cheesy, but for FIG it does the job nicely.

A lot of the articles I write may seem negative, down or highlight problems. You may experience really difficult and testing times when you start a company. So it is ESSENTIAL that you find the positives and take as much enjoyment as possible from your work.

At FIG, we work hard, we play hard, and we love it. If you want to see for yourself, come and find us in the pub in Rickmansworth on Friday afternoon!

Awesomeness

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