There are many asking if relatives should go into business together and the answer is elusive for many reasons. Depending on how closely related they are and how close they are personally can have a direct effect on their ability to work together as equal partners in a business. Different people have different personalities and the person with the most dominant personality will end up being in charge, whether planned or not, which can cause friction when running a business together.
If the relatives have known each other a long time and are well acquainted, they should already know who the stronger of two is, but in a business managing by intimidation is never a good performance standard. Before entering the business climate, they have to talk through the good and bad of being in business together, knowing that if they end up unable to work things out it will now only wreck a friendship, but can cause discord within the entire families with people taking sides in any dispute. However, they will still be related when it is over.
Being in a business as a family may have worked for the so-called mob, but in that scenario there was a firmly entrenched order and...