Introduction
Here are some tips on how to work with your spouse as a business partner. I’m sure you can find a million more of these tips on the internet. But here is a list that Michele and I have created to share with other married business partner couples. We have been learning how to be good marital partners and business partners for the past 31 years, and we will continue to learn for the rest of our lives. We consider the following tips to be very important to our successful business and marriage. We hope you find it useful too.
1. Each spouse must have their detailed duties
Each spouse should know exactly what is expected of them. By working together for so many years, each learns what the other’s strengths and weaknesses are. If a situation arises that one of the spouses does not know how to handle, or feels uncomfortable in dealing with it, you must have enough trust in the other spouse to talk, get help and solve it together, without hesitation, without harsh judgment. , and without criticizing each other.
2. You must be able to let the other spouse do their job.
But at the same time, each spouse must realize that it is in their best interest to help each other do a great job. This is especially true with a family business. Each person brings their special skills to the business. Helping each other find that special skill is also one of the joys of running a business with your spouse. Helping each other prosper in that job makes the business and the relationship grow in peace, happiness, and success.
3. Each spouse should strive to be the best they can be in their duty or role.
They must have the desire to be the best that they can be, because the family depends on them to do this. For example, the person who manages all the websites must constantly show that everything is being done to make the websites the best possible, as profitable as possible, as popular as possible, etc. They demonstrate this by staying up-to-date on everything related to website design, taking classes, writing articles, talking to website consultants, keeping track of website statistics, etc.
4. Important business decisions cannot be made without consulting with the other spouse.
Even many of the smaller decisions need to be discussed or mentioned to the partner. Each spouse should feel that they are part of the business and that their thoughts, ideas, and feelings are important. And because we care for each other, the thoughts, ideas, and feelings of the other spouse are important to each of us.
5. Any disagreement must end quickly
Any heated discussion or disagreement that arises should be considered finished after a few minutes. Never go to bed angry about something without discussing it and calming it down. Most disagreements and arguments are not worth all the effort and time that is wasted on them.
6. Family time and business time are compatible
Many of these relationship advice lists you can find online tell you to keep your family responsibilities completely separate from your business responsibilities. In our case we cannot do that. We don’t want to do that. Our business is our life. Our business mission is our life mission. We also have bills to pay and mouths to feed. Fortunately, we can seamlessly combine our business responsibilities and family responsibilities. We take all of these responsibilities very seriously. In our case, the cell phone, the computer, the Internet and our mutual dependence make it possible.
7. A business partnership is the same as a marriage.
Finally, the most important thing to remember is that a business partnership is the same as a marriage. For it to survive and thrive, it needs trust, commitment, honesty, respect, and diplomacy. A sense of humor and a bit of playfulness don’t hurt either.
conclusion
These seven tips have been the key to sticking together and helping us succeed in business and in marriage. We both know and understand that a relationship is a never-ending learning process. So if you want to work with your spouse as your business partner and build a successful business together, put your ego aside, consider the needs of the other spouse first, and find a way to put these seven tips into practice in your relationship.