Starting a business with your spouse – Do or Die?

Becoming a married couple transforms relationships into a formal partnership intended to be something that will help us in carrying out the rest of our lives. However, when it comes down to business within that partnership, many couples have split opinions. Starting a business with your spouse is either the best decision spouses ever make or something that they firmly regret.

Ones that find success in such an endeavour preach their experiences and stress how important it is to balance out your marriage to have success in business. Ones that don’t usually go through a bitter divorce with an additional financial strain on both the business and the marriage side of things. In any case, these are the two extremes that rarely happen – the real truth is usually somewhere in between.

Errors in judgement can occur even more so in this situation. While strained by the business side of things you are also emotionally challenged here. Your significant other might not have the vigilance you have and vice-versa. Due to the complexity of such an interwoven relationship I will list a couple of essential tips to find the balance and pave that road to success.

Split your roles

Partners usually want to help each other by any means necessary. This usually implies getting involved in actions your significant other does. This is fundamentally wrong because you will interfere with something your partner is focused on. Help by any means if necessary, but make sure you don’t peek into the bushes too much.

This can be avoided by agreeing to cover specific aspects of your business while leaving different ones to your partner. This has a double-positive effect. The initial one is that you will have divided responsibilities that allow a certain amount of autonomy for both – allowing focus to be clear and methods of solving problems individual. The other positive is that you will build trust if things are going according to plan – enforcing a healthy business relationship.

Personal space is key

Even though it is a joint venture – every person has an individual preference when it comes to comfort and doing work. This is why having your own space to handle work is necessary. If you spend your entire working hours and free time together, you won’t last long in this endeavor.

Developing your own routine builds confidence while also allowing for individual freedoms in both decision making and problem solving process. This will allow both of you to increase your productivity and to further enjoy your time when you are off the clock.

Define your working hours

Cutting up time to fit specific aspects of your business is must-do to ensure your efficiency. This includes working, non-working and meeting hours. Talking about your business 24/7 will get you burned out. Ignoring issues is on the other side of the spectrum and will leave you blind sighted to emerging issues.

Set up a meeting-day once per week to review what has been done and what is waiting in the days ahead. Fling ideas between your significant other to ensure you are doing quality work where it needs to be done. Set specific working hours and leisure hours. Resting is just important as doing work. We’ve all had that day when we go to work with a lack of sleep or rest – it doesn’t go too well. So why should your business be any different?

Work on your relationship

Ups and downs are a part of marriage and business – life in general if we are honest about it. This involves a certain mirroring of your business success and marriage success. Of course this is implied for failures as well.

Seasoned professionals at Withstand Lawyers confirm that marriages don’t shy away from divorces in case their business venture goes south. Have moment to relax your minds and charge up your batteries. Doing yoga, meditation, going out for a good meal or just having some fun together will go a long way to battle the everyday stress of doing for your own business.

Conclusion

Sharing work with the person you trust the most in your life can be a very rewarding experience. Moreover, it can elevate your relationship to a level not many people have. Such relationships can include a deeper connection with your partner, a further sense of sharing and potentially a healthier financial life for both of you.

Share your objectives, enforce trust and talk without reserve. Even though this may seem like a challenge for most – find other couples that seem like they can handle this and learn from their experience. Finally, remember that victories and losses are both parts of the game. Keep that in mind and confidently tread on. You are both the supporting pillars for this business – don’t crumble down.

More on starting up and picking the right partner.