How To Start a Business With Your Significant Other
Starting a business with your significant other can be exciting, but also challenging. You’ll have the most important person in your life as your business partner, allowing you to share the workload and leverage each other’s strengths. But you’d better get it right, as the partnership can either bring you closer or tear you apart.
Here are some things to think about to help maintain both the relationship and your business before jumping in.
Secure Financing
There’s no business without the money to pay for it. If you’ve been married a while you’ve probably accumulated some home equity. Depending on the business venture, it may be worth cashing some of that out by refinancing the home. Refinance loan rates make it possible for you to get a custom quote and to calculate monthly payments. Have a long talk about whether this is the right option for you, or whether you’d rather seek out other sources of funding.
Establish Clear Roles and Responsibilities
Setting clear roles and responsibilities for each partner can ensure the success of the business and the relationship between you and your significant other. The best approach to determining these roles is to understand each person’s strengths and weaknesses. That way, you can each handle what you’re good at, promoting effectiveness and efficiency.
Set Boundaries
Setting boundaries helps keep the peace between you. For example, agree on specific periods or days dedicated to family time. Doing so can help you avoid talking about business all the time, interfering with your intimate relationship. Consider setting a time when each person can spend personal time with friends or work on individual projects. This helps avoid codependency and helps maintain individuality.
Maintain Positivity
Being in a relationship is one thing, but working together is another. You might be a good partner but a bad coworker. Always compliment what your significant other does well. Let them know you see the work they do, and you appreciate it. Don’t dispense of etiquette entirely. Drop the formalities, but you need the spirit of kindness and politeness in your interactions with each other. If you sense tension, don’t let it go without acknowledging it, even if it’s something you’ll have to talk about later.
Learn To Communicate Effectively
Working with your spouse will likely prove frustrating at times. Learn to communicate effectively to avoid engaging in fights in front of employees or customers. Learn how to deal with conflict, and choose your battles. You must be honest with each other to avoid bottling up feelings that could end up affecting your work and relationship.
Check in With Couples Therapy
With the added stress of running a business with your partner, you may hit some rough patches affecting your relationship. Luckily, you can find many professionals offering couples counseling online. An outside, objective point of view can be really valuable in assessing how you communicate, verbally and nonverbally.
Uncertain? Then Don’t Do It.
If starting a business was something you entered into on a whim, it’s a good idea to talk it over and think it over. If you do have a tendency to disagree or if you don’t have a way to work out disagreements, then it’s probably not a good idea. Because starting a business together can affect your marriage. If the business fails, will the marriage? Or if the marriage fails, what happens to the business?
You can build a successful business with your significant other, but it’s not something to enter into lightly. If you do decide it’s the best thing for both of you, the payoff can be great. Nothing’s more rewarding than working on a common goal with someone you love.
Or, Take It to the Next Level
If the relationship is strong, you’ve got good communication between you, and you’ve successfully cordoned off your business lives from your personal lives, then this venture could be an opportunity for you to grow and thrive together. And one day you could introduce yourselves as partners and co-owners.
