If you run a small business, you’ve likely dealt with this situation before; when is it okay to hire a friend or family member to work for your business?

As you can imagine, most people recommend that you stay away from hiring or doing business with family members. The initial thought for most is that it could potentially end up terrible and they typically want to avoid the situation all together.

Here are a few of my thoughts on the subject based on past experience. Be sure to add any insights you may have as well.

People hear the words “business deal” and tend to think of some scene where a guy gets into a Rolls Royce, exchanges a few words with another guy in dark suit, and then hops out at his mansion and carries on with his business.

The truth is, a business deal isn’t always that pretty. In fact, it can be quite costly and harmful to your business if you fail to go about it correctly.

Here are a few insights that you may find useful when setting up a business deal.

When setting up a business deal, choose your partners wisely

Right off the bat – choose your partners wisely.

My wife is incredible.

(…yes, that equals brownie points for me.)

🙂

In all seriousness, she really is great. I often find myself learning quite a bit from her simply by watching how she interacts with life. I didn’t realize it at first, but many of these lessons are actually very valuable to entrepreneurs as well.

Here are my top 4.

Lesson #1: Be classy and work hard.

One thing I love about my wife is that she’s not afraid to roll her sleeves up and work hard. If we go somewhere important, naturally, she fits right in with elegance and class. On the other hand, if she sets a goal for herself she’s not afraid to buckle down and put in work.

Let’s face it, time is valuable. You need to find ways be more efficient if you plan to keep ahead in today’s world.

Being in college and running a business forced me to realize the very real meaning of “time is money“. I realized that, if you can’t change the quantity of time you’re given, you need to focus on improving the quality of the time you have. Here are a few ways, I noticed,  have helped me to be more efficient and improve the quality of my time.

Be sure to add your thoughts and insight to this list.

Be healthy.

1. eat better

Just this past week I learned a valuable lesson that I thought I’d share here on The Poised. The lesson is this; when a client is ready to buy, FIND A WAY TO SEAL THE DEAL.