Circle of FriendsHiring your friends can pay off for your business--if you do it right.

To start your business, you may need to, as the song goes, getby with a little help from your friends. After all, who better tohire than the people you already know, love and trust? It certainlyworked for Duff Goldman, the 31-year-old founder ofCharm CityCakes, a specialty, high-end cake-making business in Baltimore.This seasoned chef, who began his business in 2000, needed helpwhen he started marketing his lavish wedding and event cakes fulltime in 2002. "A friend called and said, 'Hey, you needhelp, and [our mutual friend] Jeff needs a job. You should hirehim,'" recalls Goldman. Though that friend didn't havea cake-decorating background, he had the artistic ability to buildarchitectural models. That skill and his willingness to learn madeit easy for Goldman to train him.

You have to make sure your friend or friends are a good fit foryour company before you hire them, notes Richard Hadden,employee-relations expert and co-author ofContented Cows Give Better Milk. "Thatapplies whether the person is a friend, enemy or someone you haveno [prior] knowledge of," he says. "But the fact that heor she is a friend should not be a qualification [byitself]."