Managing a business with your life partner can be highly rewarding – but is potentially fraught with difficulty.
Marrying together two of the most important aspects of your life – your closest relationship and your business – offers enormous potential benefits. But you could be putting both at risk if you can’t meld both together successfully.
There are many successful examples – but no doubt all have experienced their ups and downs. If you choose to follow the path of combining work and your relationship, there are things you can do to improve your chances of also being a success story.
Expect rough patches – Know what you are getting yourself into. Almost every business experiences a few bumpy patches, as do most relationships. Be prepared for the fact that it won’t always be “smooth sailing”.
Know your role – both of you should assign yourselves to the roles that you are good at and work on those, without micro-managing the other”s tasks.
Courtesy – treat your spouse with the same courtesy you would treat another business partner. Consider whether you would speak or act in the same manner to a colleague or business partner that wasn’t your husband or wife.
Put your relationship first – Invest time into your relationship, like you would with your business. And remember that no business should cost you your marriage. If it’s not working, one of you needs to remove yourself from the day to day running of the business. Perhaps find other work and keep your involvement at “arm’s length”.
Clear boundaries – Having clearly defined boundaries between work and home life can be difficult for any business operator, but is even more difficult when you and your partner share the common challenge of running your business. Try to set times in the evening where business is not discussed, or if you have a home office, where you shut the door on it for the evening.
Outside interests – It’s important to have individual interests that you can enjoy, so that both of you can take your heads out of the work space. And these interests also provide something other than work that you can discuss at home.
Separate yourselves – Try to work in separate areas for at least some parts of your day. Spending countless hours in the same room gives you more chance of becoming a bother to the other person; and nothing to discuss about your day when work is done.
Seek help – If your work arrangement is impacting on your relationship, seek help sooner rather than later. Working with your partner can be extremely difficult at times and there is no shame in seeking assistance to help you through the toughest patches.
Like most things in life, there is no proven formula for success. But being aware of the obvious hurdles and having a few plans in place to overcome them will improve your chances of success.