Many people will tell you that you should separate your personal relationships from your professional relationships. That may sound like a good idea, but you may soon discover that some of your best customers and business associates can also become some of your best friends. What do you do then?

Well, when things are going well, these hybrid relationships will probably create very minimal and rare problems. It’ll be business as usual during the week and then you can be “just friends” on the weekends when you go to watch a movie or go out for a drink. However, how should you handle the situation if either the personal or professional side of the relationship goes sour?

In an ideal world, you should be able to continue with the half that is still “functional” without having the “problem” relationship interfere. Speaking for myself, I used to write for a couple of friends and the business side ultimately didn’t work out in the end. Thankfully, I was able to maintain a good personal relationship with both of these men without having an adverse effect on my freelance writing. No harm, no foul, and we are able to continue conversing without our past business relationship being an issue.

Will this be able to work out in every scenario? Probably not, but you should do what you can to salvage the healthy relationship even if either the personal or professional side goes sour. The lines can easily become blurred, so always proceed with caution and forethought.