Ask Barry: "Is there anything I should worry about when prospecting: Can you lose a friendship?"

The new "Ask Barry" feature has been a huge success. I'm getting many people sending me questions ... and I answer every single one of them personally!

If you have a question for a MLM mentor, use the form and send me your question.

You can access the form from the "ASK BARRY" box on this page (5th box from the top in the right column).


Here's a question that recently came in:

"Is there anything I should worry about when prospecting: Can you lose a friendship?"

The answer I'm "supposed" to give you is, "Don't worry about it. If you really believe in your business, then you should want to share it with your friends and family first."

That's the "company line." And there actually is a lot of truth to it. However in real life it's not that simple.

There IS a danger of hurting friendships by approaching them with your business.

Many people do not like to mix business and friendships.

Money issues have broken many great friendships, and have even been cited as the #1 cause for divorce.

When you go into business with a friend or family member you are essentially becoming business partners. And everyone in traditional business knows that becoming a business partner with a friend is a very risky venture.

This doesn't mean that you should never do it.

It does mean that you should think about it carefully before you do.

It depends on the nature of your friendship and the other person's personality.

The best way to evaluate it is this: Imagine the worse case scenario - they join with you and they lose a TON of money! Now, can your friendship survive that?

Having said that, I have gone into business with a friend and our friendship survived just fine (though it was strained at times). But that friend and I are both extremely entrepreneurial ... in fact that's what brought us together. So it was already at the heart of our relationship. Plus there's a tremendous amount of trust between us, and I know my friend always takes full responsibility for everything in his life, and would never feel bad about losing money on something I told him about, because he knows he didn't have to do it. But I knew that about him before we started.

So take it on a case-by-case basis. I would certainly encourage you to approach your entrepreneurial friends if you know that your friendship could weather their failure in the business.

Again, you won't hear this from most Network Marketing trainers ... except me!

So congratulations to you for thinking about this and for valuing your friendships. A great friendship is invaluable. I'm so happy to see that you're treating it with care and sensitivity and not just blindly following what someone else tells you to do.

Keep thinking for yourself. Sounds like you have a good head on your shoulders and a good heart too.

To your success,

Barry Burns