People told my brothers and me not to start a business with family. We did it anyway, and we managed to make it work.
We also had plenty of arguments. Being brothers didn't mean we automatically agreed about how the business should run.
That's why I wouldn't casually recommend it to someone else. You can put a family relationship under a lot of pressure when money and the business become part of every disagreement. I've seen that go badly.
For us, knowing how to work through conflict mattered. There were things we could argue about and still keep going together. We had to deal with the business while preserving the relationship around it.
The other side of that is reliability. In my own experience, there aren't people more reliable than my brothers. When we could make the working relationship function, that was a real strength.
Both things can be true about the same partnership. It can give you people you trust deeply, and it can put relationships you value at risk. Our outcome doesn't remove that tradeoff for another family.
I would think carefully about how you already handle disagreements before deciding to work together. A close relationship alone won't answer that question. You need to know what happens when you disagree and there is something substantial on the line.
We made it through, and I'm glad we did. But healthy conflict was part of making it work. If you can't see how you'll have that, take the risk to the family relationship seriously before you begin.
