Friendships, Businesses, and Balance

Lately, I have been refraining from calling just anybody my friend. That word is not a simple word, and it shouldn't just be attributed to anybody. I believe there are dynamics to friendships, roles to play, and levels of intimacy required to qualify a person for that position in their life. Otherwise, we might as well have ourselves some frenemies instead.

I want to try to not sound like a saint because, really, no one's perfect. I just feel there are certain things that people do that really baffle me, and sometimes I am never able to find excuses for them. This matter of friends in businesses is something I was to discuss.

A very close friend of mine launched her business about five months ago. It is a shoe brand of hers. She makes footwear of certain kinds by herself. Prior to starting the enterprise, she had to spend a lot of money and time and put in a lot of effort and dedication to learn how to make footwear. However, a time came at the launch of her bunisness when she had an issue with a customer of hers.

My friend happens to be a very considerate and compassionate person and really isn't driven by a desire to make money. Hence, she was ready to start small and earn small profits over her products just to make it easier for people to want to try her handwork out and to not have to deal with competition against incumbents in her field market.

The actual price that would be fair enough for both parties, the customer and herself, was $10, as she explained to me. However, my friend was willing to do it for $6 for the customer in question that she would go on to have an issue with. The customer, on the other hand, even after being informed of what the actual price should have been, still asked for a further discount. This customer wanted to pay $3. My friend, the shoe maker, was stunned; so was I, but I was even more appalled when I learned who this customer in question was to my friend.

It turned out that this customer in question was a "good friend" of mine. As a matter of fact, Stella, my friend, had always been such a supportive friend to her friend and even so very much with her friend's business. Joanna would reach out to Stella every now and then whenever she had new stock to sell and would persuade Stella to patronise her. My friend would oblige sometimes. What's disturbing, however, is that Joanna always brought seemingly exorbitant prices.

Stella always sort of knew that her friend's prices were somewhat unusual, but she never really mentioned it since she tries to consider the effect of the terrible inflation in the economy on goods. Notwithstanding, Joanna would never ever bring up a "friendship discount," like she would go on to request from Stella in the future on Stella's products.

Might I add that Joanna's attitude towards my friend changed while they were in the bargain stage? Yeah, Joanna acted as though she and Stella were strangers when it came to supporting Stella, even though Stella had done so nicely to reduce the cost for her friend. It was very appalling, and my friend was so surprised and disappointed at that behaviour, and so she had to call off the bad deal.

When I wanted to patronise Stella for a pair of shoes, she was going to do the same for me. In fact, she wasn't going to let me in on the actual cost, but I was able to put together what it may have been from similar discussions of ours prior.

My friend was insistent that I, of all her friends, shouldn't even pay any amount, for we had been such dear friends. I understood her perspective and why she would do that for me, but I went on to do what I had preconceived to do in my heart: I paid the exact cost of the shoes I wanted. Perhaps I even sent more, but it didn't matter to me, really. However, I had to talk with my friend about this "friends in business" matter.

In a nutshell, I made her understand that of all the people in the world, it is her actual friends that should show her support by paying the full cost of her services and products, especially when the business was just starting. That, among other ways, is how we can show her support and help her business thrive and grow. What manner of friend would we be to her if we did otherwise?

I could enjoy some benefits in the future, especially when the business is really flourishing, as per "dear friend," but it is here and now in the foundation that it is imperative that I prove that I am indeed a friend. That is how it should be. It shouldn't be me, as a friend, who would ruin the business...