Allow me to introduce you to my best friend. Her name is Katharina Hueggenberg and she popped into my very first Fabulous Furballs dog boutique a few years ago. Initially, she wanted to franchise in Phoenix, Arizona because she was sick of the Canadian cold weather. Eventually, she settled on opening my first franchise in an upscale suburb of Edmonton, Alberta that wasn’t quite as sunny as Arizona. Kat is a long time boxer breeder, breeding and showing beautiful boxers throughout Canada and the United States. In many ways, we couldn’t be more different: she likes boxers, I’m a die hard tiny dog lover; she comes from a German family that likes stout beer and hearty food, I come from an Asian-Hawaiian family that appreciates sake and sushi; she sees the details and headaches with executing big ideas, I see the big idea without worrying how the details will happen. Like all good friendships, our friendship has seen once in a lifetime good times and we have been through difficult times when we wanted to kill each other. The one thing that was always consistent was our commitment to one another. I could hate her, but I would always hate the person doing her wrong more.

The problem with my friendship with Kat is that she has ruined me for working with and being friends with my employees. Things went so well and always ended sunny side up with Kat that I ignored the experiences, lessons, and innumerable indications that I had to stay “friendly, not friends” with my employees. There I was, knowing better, but ignoring it because I am so damn friendly. It was inevitable that it would blow up in my face. Of course it would. Right after Kat moved back to Canada, I hired a project manager that quickly became my right hand, moving right into Kat’s role in my world. Unfortunately, not everyone has the maturity and life experience to handle balancing a close friendship with the difficult decisions a CEO has to make. It finally came to a head when a close friend said to me, “It’s clear that you have to choose. Is it more important to run the company or to be someone’s friend?” As difficult as it was, I had to make that choice and learn from my own experience. These lessons suck. My advice is to stay “friendly not friends” and yes, that means you will have to choose if your business or friendship is more important.