Husband and Wife Business Partners

Working with a spouse as your business partner can reap incredible benefits if it is the right decision for both of you.  There are special advantages to a husband and wife team working together.  For some it works and propels them to a new level of success and love.  For others it may not be the right choice for the long term health of their relationship.

Before my priceless daughter Elia was born, you could say that my partner in business was my wife Adriana.  She was exceptional at her job.  She held the other end of Barefoot Radio up while I handled the creative and web development details.  She had a full time job here along with me.  Not only did she do very much with photoshop and print design, she was also single handedly responsible for advertisement sales, and many other managerial things for the station.  She was marvelous here and she is living proof that this is a viable business if the correct person steps in to handle advertisement sales and management responsibility.

September of 2009 for Barefoot Radio was a milestone for the company.  That month, between our glass store and the radio station, we managed to gross sales of approximately $10,000.00 dollars.  We were hitting home runs at the time because of the unique synergy I had with my wife in the situation.  She’s so exceedingly good at selling to people over the phone, and I know she took pride in doing it.  One benefit of our husband/wife partnership was that we both shared a mutual pride in this venture that is hard to replicate in a person who does not have a genuine vested interest in the operation.  It helps very much to know the person your working with cares about the success of something like you do.  This is an added benefit of the right kind of business partner you can have in a spouse.  We had a common goal, and our unique business situation propelled us forward to never before seen achievements.

It could be a good thing or a bad thing to have a partner in business, but with a spouse, you’re raising the stakes.   Depending on how you weigh the pros and cons of your own personal situation, you should think very carefully about working together.  For some couples it will be an automatic winner, and for others, the road might be a bit more turbulent.

Finding the right partner in business can catapult your success by leaps and bounds.  I can’t tell you how long I’ve imagined having more investment in my company to achieve certain development goals and delegate responsibility, both in terms of revenue and pioneering new internet technology.  For me, I don’t think these things will be possible without taking on a business savvy partner who shares a common vision.  Indeed, I would appreciate more company around me day to day as I strive to move my company forward.

In my situation there were many advantages and disadvantages to working with my wife.  She is a woman of immense talents when she puts her mind to it.  It was true down here at the company, and it is true when I see how she raises our daughter.  However, working together all the time was not all rosy as my wife and I were around each other every day for almost two years.  We tended to get on each other’s nerves once in a while.  If you’re a couple who enjoys time apart, you might want to give serious consideration to being around one another all the time.   Is it ok with both of you, or one of you and not the other? Opening a business together has likely destroyed many good marriages.

So my wife is no longer my partner in the business end of things, but regardless she is handling an even more important job right now, taking care of our wonderful daughter Elia.  Her departure from the company has forced me to reevaluate my own ability to get this thing off the ground single handedly.  I absorbed many of her responsibilities and I am not comparatively good at dealing with some of them.  I am proud for having picked up the baton of many things, but it would be remarkable to have another business partner with a vested interest and common vision working with me.

I miss my wife here at my company.  There was more momentum working with someone.  You can always achieve a higher level of success on a properly functioning team.   It’s hard not to.  We both motivated each other on a day to day basis.  We felt that each others successes were our own, and in some ways that’s how it should be for husband and wife as partners.   Interestingly, a partner may not be your spouse, but in the business they may be in fact that metaphorically.

The bottom line is a good partner can propel you forward, and a bad one can hold you back. There are so many questions that you must ask if you decide to take a partner on in your business.  You have to see eye to eye with your partner and if you do, it could be the best decision you ever made to take on a partner.  You want to know that your working chemistry is good so I suggest a trial period to test things out before jumping into business with anyone else.

By P. Saurini